The Lives Men Lead
by WhtsThFrequency
Summary: If you're a David fan..aren't we all..this one's for you. Max is dead, and David is mortal. Paul..since he rocks and never gets enough attention!..makes it also. Why? How will they deal when new enemies, and friends, step in? Complete! Rock and roll!
1. Alive

_If they had killed Max sixty seconds earlier, I would have bled to death on that cheap hardwood floor_

The thought pounded into David's head as he made his way down the road in a shambling run.

The wounds still stung mightily, but worse than that was the strange, burning feeling of immortality leaving every cell in his body. _Max is dead. But I'm not. Then what am I_?

Before he could stop himself, he felt his knee lock. He tries to catch himself as he fell, but it seemed like his limbs had lost their usual catlike ability. They felt slow, heavy. He hit the concrete violently and rolled to the side of the road.

He lay there for a full minute, somewhere in between gasping and crying out of sheer confusion, pain , and desperation_. I am an animal. I cannot feel. All I know is pain and desire to run. _His senses felt strangely dulled. _I can't hear the people on the Boardwalk. I can't feel anyone's thoughts. I can't, I can't...why do I feel so weak?_

He managed to get to his hands and knees and looked up. The sun was creeping over the horizon.

There was no burning.

He remembered the scene only minutes ago, shaking himself from his faint and the searing pain of the wounds. Extricating himself from the horns as the battle raged, the onlookers oblivious, he desperately tried to coax his heightened healing along as the blood poured down. By the time he was at the back door, the flow had stopped to a trickle and the openings of the wounds had closed. By the time he got to the end of the yard, only the pain remained. _Stupid horn doesn't kill vampires_, he had thought, a tiny bit of confidence returning. _In a few more minutes I'll be right as rain. They forgot how fast we heal._

And that was when a terrible, agonizing scream seemed to come from within ,as he felt something deep inside of him being ripped out with such force that it almost brought all the air out of his lungs with it.

Max was dead

And he was mortal.


	2. The Sewer Rat

What David didn't know was that he wasn't the only one.

Paul came to with the worst headache he had ever had. It was dark, slimy…everything smelled foul around him. He let out a string of muffled curses and pulled himself to his feet dizzily. Stone walls, darkness, water everywhere…smell like….like…shit. "Oh you have got to be kidding me." Paul winced through the pain in his chest. He was in the sewer. He plodded forward. There had to be a manhole cover or something, somewhere.

As he stumbled along in the dark, trying to hold his breath and think at the same time (which wasn't working), Paul wondered if anyone else had made it, for one reason or another. He reached out with the Pack bond. There was no response. Wait. He tried again. For some reason, he couldn't connect with it. That didn't make sense. Vampires in a pack could always communicate with one another. Sigh. He had suspected that Max would come and crash their party…what if Michael and those kids had killed him? Wouldn't all the Boys be dead, too?

Paul was smarter than he chose to portray himself, but right now he felt like he was at the level of a five-year old. He tried to remember the lineages of his packmates, but family trees weren't his best subject. "Ok…David was sired by…hmm, I don't know, but Max became his guardian or something so he had Max's blood. We all have Max's blood. Okay. Ummm. Dwayne and Marko only had Max as their sire. Mine is….." Paul stopped talking to himself and realized he had mentally trod on territory he had swore he would never go onto again. "Blah. Forget about it. I'm here, that's all I need to know." He mumbled to himself, trying to summon up his normal sense of nonchalance. It didn't quite come.

He walked smack into a wall. "Yow!" Not just a wall. A service ladder! Those lead up to the manholes! "Yeeeeahhh that's RIGHT!" Paul crowed gleefully and climbed up. He reached the top and heaved on the manhole. "Come oooooooon" With a heavy screech the cover lifted. Light blasted into Paul's eyes with such intensity that he yelped, falling all the way back down the service ladder. Daylight. He checked himself all over for burns…Nothing. His brow furrowed. Paul was not used to the feeling of confusion. He climbed up again and gingerly held his hand in the path of the light. Nothing. He reached farther up. Still nothing. With a deep breath, he pushed the cover back all the way and stuck his head out. He squinted and realized quite a few people were staring at a strange-looking young man poking his head out of the sewer. Not knowing whether to feel embarrassed or thankful, Paul heaved himself out and smiled sheepishly. "Er…. No worries people….no, er, crocodiles down there." He turned quickly and went towards the cave. If anyone else was, for any reason, still alive, they would be there. And maybe they could explain to him what the hell was going on.


	3. Hello and Goodbye

**Alrighty guys, here we go. This is more like the length of my chapters. However, please review if you want more….this will be the last one until I get a little more feedback. I don't want to go posting all this if no one reads it (Boo hoo!!! Guess I'll go eat worms!!). Hope you like it.**

About half an hour later, Paul was throwing an uncharacteristic fit at the cave. Screaming obsceneties, he threw whatever he could find wherever he could see. David sat on one of the chairs, hands clasped and head downwards, waiting for Paul to stop. They had met up unexpectedly, and in his state of confusion David had almost killed his packmate. But things had settled down…that was until David had relayed the news and realization came crashing down on Paul's head. "Why us? Why not Marko and Dwayne? Damn it!! What the hell!!"

A candlestick whizzed by David's ear and the former leader decided that Paul needed a calming down. "Paul –" his sentence failed as another candle hit him across the cheek. "PAUL!" he roared, partly out of frustration and partly out of pain. His voice echoed through the cave and suddenly he had Paul up against the wall. "Paul, do you know what's going to happen if we fall apart? News flies fast, and before we know if we're going to be on the run from every pack in California. We aren't –" David stopped and cleared his throat – "we _weren't _the most popular guys around." Paul's eyes were still flashing angrily, but the coldness in David's slowly brought him back down to earth.

David let him down and continued, turning away, running and hand through his hair, which had lost its characteristically spiked appearance and was spotted with dried blood. "And we're about as frightening now as Easter ducklings"

"But if we're…..mortal now, they can't sense us."

"They don't need to. Our deaths, plus Max, is going to send vibrations across the entire freaking state. They'll know where to come. And if they find us here, we're really, and truly, dead."

Paul made a despairing noise and paced. Despite his cool exterior, David himself was slowly going mad with fear. They had no chance. He went up to the entrance of the cave, momentarily halting due to the sunlight, but then bleakly remembering, and continuing outside. It was actually a nice day.

_God….I haven't seen sun in…I can't even remember._ He sat down and squinted upwards.

He was getting used to the strange dull feeling of mortality. His heightened senses were gone, but he was adapting. He tried to forget about their predicament for the moment. He was torn between grieving in a strange sense for the rest of his packmates, and saying "screw it" and catching the nearest bus to Canada or Mexico. He smelled grass, ocean, sand…warm smells, not like the coolness of evening or night. If it had come about in any other way, he may have even been glad of the change. He had to admit, he had always liked the feeling of the sun on his shoulders.

He shrugged off his trenchcoat, ripped in various places and smelling of blood and ash, and let the light beat down on the back of his black short-sleeved shirt and bare arms. He could see the veins in his forearms standing out. He watched them curiously. They were an incredibly blue color, standing out against white. Moving blood, eh? Brought back memories. Well, more like disoriented thoughts….it was too long ago for him to remember. But Dwayne, Marko, and Max were gone. He and Paul alone couldn't keep the pack going._ Pack, why do I keep thinking that. I'm a human now. A ridiculous human._

He kept staring at his arm, barely noticing Paul come out and sit next to him. "What about Laddie and Star?"

David's ears didn't miss the poorly hidden emphasis on the second name in Paul's sentence. It had been common knowledge, ever since Star came to the group, the Paul had been going through what David derisively referred to as "sickening pathetic puppy love." Most of his antics, David suspected, were to either impress the girl or make her laugh. Neither had resulted. They had all teased Paul for a while, especially David, even though he felt little for Star himself besides bragging rights. But it grew boring as nothing ever seemed to come of it.

"They were only half, idiot. They're right back where they started. Mortal."

"Like us?"

David narrowed his eyes at Paul, not liking the slight hopeful tinge to his packmate's voice."Yeah. Like us."

The two sat in silence until David spoke again. "I'm heading north. I don't care where you go."

Paul gave him a genuinely hurt look. "Come on man, I thought we should stick together."

David stood up and brushed off his pants. "I can't deal with you are your usual goofball attitude." He immediately regretted the snarling tone of his voice and looked away, not wanting to admit that he was, in fact, terrified of being on the road again by himself. The last time he had been a lone wolf, things had not gone well.

"Hey man…."

The two turned to face each other. Paul's voice had gone soft and serious, and he shuffled his feet. "That was all just play. This is, well, it's serious. I know you're freaking out, I am too. I just, er…we're brothers man, we need to stick together. Things have changed."

David had never heard Paul speak even remotely seriously, and it threw him off balance. The words reverberated in his head "we're brothers". Somewhere, deep inside his head, he knew Paul was right. Pack or not, vampire or not, they all had sworn an oath and he needed to keep his side of it. It wasn't just a "best friends" promise, or even a "blood promise" – it ran much deeper than that, deeper than family, deeper than anything.

"Let's just stay here tonight, we can figure out what to do later. I'm damn tired. But first we have to do something. Quickly."

Paul nodded. He knew what David meant.

**NOT VERY FAR AWAY**

Star watched as the Emersen's car finally went out of view. She squeezed Laddie's hand comfortingly, but the little boy still did not speak. "It's all right, we'll be fine." She knelt down and pushed the boy's hair away from his face. "We can make it work. We always did, right?" She smiled and Laddie tentatively smiled back.

Michael and his family had decided to move on. There was too much in Santa Carla for them to forget. In a way it was heartbreaking to see Michael go, but in another way Star felt the freshness of a new life running through her. She could start completely over, with no one from her old life to stand in her way. Sunlight everywhere.

"_Star" he had said to her "I wish I could stay, but you know I can't"_

"_I know"_

"_But if you ever need anything, I'll be there. I won't forget you."_

"_I know you won't"_

"_Good, remember that." Michael paused as he turned to get into the car, and gave her a smile. "Goodbye, Star"_

"_Goodbye, Michael"_

"Come on." Star took Laddie's hand and they started towards the Boardwalk.

**BACK IN THE CAVE**

David and Paul had doused any lights in the cave save a large barrel fire in the middle. They stood on either side. In unison, they took knives and cut their hands. David made a fist and held it over the ground, watching the blood drip to the ground.

"Blood for brothers lost"

Paul repeated in Latin, and also made a fist.

It seemed a strange ceremony of mourning. Both were in complete black. Paul had cut his hair almost to David's length, while David had washed the blood from his hair, and cut the longer part in the back.

It was the only sacrifice they had figured they could make, since self-wounding was no longer an option, and they had no material things to sacrifice. Paul still looked a bit peeved, but David's cold glare shut him up. _It will grow back. Just deal with it. Be glad you're alive and not dead like the other two. They deserve some kind of thanks or honoring from us._

David concentrated on his hand. He squeezed his fist harder, as if trying to will the others back through his pain. The tight muscles in his arm stood out and for a split second, he felt like his old self – a perfectly designed killing machine. For the second he felt no fear. It wasn't until he winced from the sting in his palm that he realized the feeling was just that – a momentary lapse. He wasn't all powerful anymore. He was cool, confident, sleek and sexy David anymore. He was just some guy. _Just some guy. Some guy, like every other guy on the Boardwalk. Every other idiot who had no inkling that they were little more than walking meat. _ His thoughts kept jumping around; it was difficulty focusing on the ritual at hand. He and Paul had to be on the road by nightfall. Otherwise, they would be sitting ducks for anyone and everyone undead.

"David." Paul's voice broke his thoughts. David glanced up. Even though Paul was not looking in David's direction, his hand made a quick signal. He was looking to the right side of the cave. Someone else was in the cave with them. David tensed and his eyes scoured the darkness. _How did they get here this quick?_ His breath shook a little as he tried to secure his footing. No weapon besides the knife he held. A lot of good that would do.

_Any second now_.

Paul had also readied himself and chanced a quick glance back at his packmate.

It was at that exact moment that a huge force drove itself into David's back, knocking the wind out of him. His head swung dangerously close to the fire and he twisted his body to the right, landing heavily on one shoulder. He heard Paul's furious roar, but another blow came from above, this time to the back of his head, and everything went black.


	4. Predator and Prey

**Ok, sorry for the cliffhanger…bwaha. I just love those. I usually don't like introducing new characters but I thought long and hard about these guys. "Cate" is pronounced the same way as "Kate". Think Eliza Dushku. Think Eric Bana for Tobias. I always like giving people a better idea of what characters look like by assigning actors. Anyway, here we go. Keep those reviews coming!!!! And if there's anything you think you'd like to see worked in…let me know and I will see what I can do.**

Catherine hadn't expected them both to go down so quickly. But, never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, she helped Tobias tie the two unconscious vampires…ex-vampires, she thought to herself…..they had been watching these two closely for the past few hours…..up quickly.

It was pure luck they had been in Santa Carla that day. A tip had come in from Marion in Arizona about Max going down. Evidently a few vampires in her patrol zone had suddenly kicked, and she knew who they were. Max's children. Knowing the Lost Boys gang in Santa Carla was in with Max, but not knowing how deeply, she and her brother had hauled ass south and headed to the cave Marion specified to see what remained. It had almost been too easy. She fingered the knives sheathed on either side of her hips. No blood, no fuss….she'd heard quite a bit about these Lost Boys…seems like they didn't live up to the rumors. She and Tobias knew names only. David, Paul, Dwayne, and Marko. David was the leader, Dwayne second in command, Marko and Paul were the younger firebrands.

Now all they had to do was figure out where the rest were. There were supposed to be four. She looked distastefully down at the two on the floor. Pathetic. Their only excuse could be their recent encounter with mortality. The first was younger, dirty blond hair, small features, couldn't have been more than eighteen or nineteen. Cute little thing, Cate snickered to herself. The other seemed a bit older, with short, spiky white-blond hair and a five-o-clock shadow that was just barely too neat to be accidental. It had been about an hour and they were already waking up.

Tobias cast a glance towards his sister, making sure she was ready to start the questioning. He was a tall, youngish man with deep-set brown eyes, heavy eyebrows, and prominent cheekbones. The softness of his face hid the darkness beneath it. Both he and his sister shared the unique ability to _appear_ harmless. In their trade, it sometimes paid off. "Up with you. Where are the rest?"

.His crossbow was taut, pointed directly at the elder's head. The arrow tip gleamed silver. The younger one shook himself awake first. "What the, who the….hell are you?" he muttered, spitting blood out in between the words.

Tobias' soft but resonating voice continued, not missing a beat. "That's not your concern. Where are the others? Or your friend here gets a silver arrow in his pretty little head."

"The name is David. Watch who you're calling pretty." The second has also come to and his threatening voice reverberated though the cave. He was obviously doing his best to intimidate despite his position. Cate placed a heel delicately on his neck and played with her knife. Her hazel eyes stared into his blue ones. For the first time in his life, David realized he was losing a staring contest. He broke contact first, moving his eyes towards Tobias. "Take care of your cat or we might have to end up declawing her"

"Big words from the man who got his ass kicked by the cat."

That crash into his back was HER? Jesus. David swore she couldn't weight more than a hundred twenty, maybe one thirty. There must be some serious firepower somewhere in that body. Tobias pulled him to his feet and shoved him against the wall. David kept his composure. Cate walked up to him, and started slowly circling, still playing with her knife. _She's checking me out like a piece of meat that's going to be cut up._ David had sized up many a kill, and many a girl, but being put in the situation himself made him feel distinctly uncomfortable. Her mouth was caught in a half-smirk, but other than that her face was completely stoic.

Her hand came up to his chin and she held his head up firmly. Turning his face to the right, and then slowly to the left, her fingers gently rubbed the short hair under his chin as one would do to a kitten. "You're the leader? I was expecting something more impressive." her voice was deeper than he expected. She locked her eyes on him again and David felt a bizarre combination of attraction, uncertainty, and humiliation. It was only then that her nature hit him.

She was a predator. A ruthless predator.

There was no mercy in those hazel eyes; their beauty was overpowered by their fierceness. David had met few people, vampire or human, who he considered to be true killers. He fancied himself one, but secretly knew he couldn't ever quite reach the depths of cruelty and sadism that they did. Dwayne had been one. That was why David had convinced Max to pick him. Dwayne, with his quiet ferocity, only rarely letting the animal that lurked underneath his cool exterior out of its cage. The other one, the man, was tough. No doubt about it, David recognized courage and purpose when he saw it. But this girl was absolute murder.

She stepped close enough so that their noses were almost touching. David felt frozen. He could be dead before he knew it, dead before he hit the ground. His arms and legs were bound tight and Paul could do nothing but watch from across the floor. With an agonizingly slow movement, Cate turned her head slightly and moved her lips delicately up his neck. David's knees buckled and if he had not been bound he would have fallen to the floor. It was as if someone had suddenly injected lightening into his bloodstream. For a split second, the atmosphere of imminent death turned into one of complete and utter raw sexuality. She wasn't just a predator, she was a tigress. David's body was instinctively responding and he felt all of his muscles lock as he tried to halfway suppress a low, intimate growl coming from deep in his throat. Cate moved her face level with his again. If she was reveling in torturing him, she showed no sign. Instead she leaned forward ever so slightly and took his bottom lip in between her teeth.

And bit down. Hard. David yelped. She pulled away as he gasped and spat, her face having remained completely calm the entire time, lips still in a mild smirk. "How does it feel?"

"What the hell!"

"How does it feel? Not used to getting bit yourself, are you."

"Cate, easy" Tobias cautioned.

Cate slowly turned her gaze from David and gave Tobias a lazy smile, tucking her knife into its sheath at her waist. "Only playing."

"The others are dead!" Paul interjected suddenly. Everyone turned to look at him. "They went when Max went. Me and David are the only ones left. Now for Chrissakes, who are you guys."

"Tobias. And you've met Catherine. I call her Cate. You don't." Tobias smiled as if he were explaining to a pair of children "We hunt your kind."

Paul stared. "You have got to be joking."

David murmured "The famous _occisor mortui_. Didn't know your type would deign to come to our little old town."

Tobias turned. "A murderer of the dead. Very good. You know your history."

"I do when it comes to things that kill vampires. You two are babies compared to the ones that came here two decades ago. Are they crib-robbing now? How's the European clan doing?"

Tobias lifted the crossbow slightly, not giving in to David's ridicule. "Making a killing."

David sneered.

"Well, afraid you're a bit late to this party. We're not dead anymore" Paul scoffed.

"We noticed."

"Oh." _Damn._

Cate tilted her head towards David. "He's still bleeding. Plus we watched you from the hill an hour ago. You were both outside in daylight."

David spat again on the ground angrily. His pride was overtaking his good sense. "Don't miss a thing, do you Kitty Cate." He regretted the words the instant they came out of his mouth. _Oh, crap_. Cate stalked up fluidly, muscles rippling under her clothes. _I'm dead. Dead meat. _She stopped a few feet in front of him and cocked her head. "Mmmm. You just won yourself a get-out-of-death free card for showing some balls. Davey Crockett taking his chances against the biggest bear in the woods." a hint of mockery entered her voice.

"There is another option" Tobias said slowly, speaking to Paul but with his dark eyes watching Cate carefully. She couldn't be allowed to lose it again…the last time that happened….it wasn't a good time. _My sister, my charge, my responsiblity_. "We can offer you a deal."

"Deal?" Paul said, suspiciously. "What deal?"

He had worked one hand loose of his bonds as well as both feet, and was keeping it as inconspicuous as possible.

"We have word that a big San Fran pack is coming down, will be here by tomorrow. They heard about the loss of turf and are ready to make it theirs. You two won't stand a chance. We plan to stay around and take them on, but it'll be tough with just us. So our offer stands like this – join us, and you can do all the killing, revenge-taking, whatever you want. After we're done, we'll let you go in peace."

"Which pack?" Paul wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer to his own question.

"Copperheads. Tristan is leading them again."

Paul's stomach heaved and he managed to hold back a retch. Tristan. He wouldn't be looking to just take over territory. He would be looking for Paul. Paul, his Judas, his traitorous progeny. Paul was desperately thankful he could no longer tap into any bond. If he felt Tristan's presence again, he felt sure he would lose it. Completely and utterly lose it, run to the hills and cower like a scared rabbit. David watched Paul's reaction. He knew the history. This wasn't going to be pretty. Tristan was always out for blood, but this time it would be worse than usual. There was no personal vendetta between the two leaders, but David wasn't about to leave a packmate to be dismembered by a pissed-off sire.

"Word has it he'll be looking for a vampire named Paul…which is you, I'm taking it?"

Paul nodded slightly, miserably. His boyish features looked almost old in the dim light. His past was overtaking him. The charming, cocky, joke-cracking Paul was being buried. Understanding came like a crack of lightning over the dark California surf.

_That's why David and I aren't dead, but we're not vampires either. Max wasn't our sire. We had his blood in us, but it wasn't enough to kill us when he died. Only enough to kill us halfway, make us mortal again. Marko and Dwayne only had Max. Tristan felt it, I know he did. He can't feel me any more but he knows I'm not dead. Why? Because _he's_ not dead. _

"Well, what do you say?"

David looked at Paul. _It's your call. _ Paul stopped loosening his ropes and eyes narrowed. It was fight or die either way. David was right, it was his call. It was his sire leading the pack, it was his business above all else. Finally he nodded, raising his eyes and trying to get some of the old cocky Paul back in his voice. "Sounds like a plan."

"Paul? David?" a small voice rang out from the entrance. Before anyone could even turn to look, Cate's knife was whizzing through the air.

Paul screamed and leapt to his feet, leaving the ropes on the ground. "Star!!"

Star was quick. She whirled to the right, shielding Laddie, and managed to barely miss the knife. It sliced the shoulder off her tunic and hit the stone wall with a shower of sparks. Laddie shrieked and hid in her skirt. Paul bounded up the stairs and blocked any subsequent throw. "Star! Wait, Star! Laddie!"

David struggled furiously against his bonds. Cate was on him immediately, behind him with one arm around his chest, the other holding her second knife at his throat, and mouth by his ear "If she makes a move, Davey, you're the first to die" Her breath made him shiver and the knife nicked the skin of his neck. David coughed and tried to turn his head "Call me that again and I really will declaw you."

A wrenching pain in his ear made him scream. Cate spat his earring onto the ground and held him tighter, reducing his painful thrashings to mere jerks. "I can call you whatever I want." Her voice rose and directed itself towards Star "This blade is either going into you or him."

Paul looked back and held out a hand at Cate "She's a friend, stop, she's a friend!"

Cate's knife only barely moved from David's neck.

Without thinking, Paul ran up the rest of the way and caught Star up in a tight hug. "Star! You came back! Why…why did you come back?"

"Paul!" Laddie cried, and hugged his leg. Star couldn't help but smile. Her boys! She felt a pang of remorse. But as she looked down, she saw that a great deal was wrong. David was bound. A strange man and woman were standing there, one with a crossbow pointed directly at her, the other with a knife at David's throat. David was bleeding from his lip and ear. She looked up and saw Paul's forehead was equally as injured. Her grip on Paul tightened. "We…we were at the Boardwalk, and I…I-I I decided to come back and get some clothes and things from the cave and….Paul, what's going on?"

Paul spoke softly in her ear. "It's all right. They're friends. Well, sort of. It's all right. Come on, I'll walk you down. They won't hurt you."

He didn't even realize until he had led her and Laddie down to the bottom of the stairs, to the main floor of the cave, that right then had been the closest he had ever been to Star. He blushed. And this time, it showed.

Tobias slowly lowered his crossbow and nodded at Cate to release David. Cate waited a second, and removed the knife from his throat. Seemingly unconcerned, she cut the ropes on his hands and gave him the knife. David stared first at the knife in his hand, then at her.

Cate didn't even look back as she walked towards the newcomers. "Cut your feet loose. You know what'll happen if you try anything."

David cut the ropes around his ankles and winced as the blood began to circulate again. His ear was still throbbing and he placed a hand gingerly to it to try and stop the copious blood flow. This girl was insane. Not just a killer, but veritably insane. He left Cate's knife on the ground. He wasn't about to do anything stupid, but the little that remained of his arrogance was screaming for retribution. No one had ever humiliated him like this. As soon as this was all over…he would have to have a few words with this girl….and a few blades as well….


	5. Calm Before The Storm

After hesitant introductions had been made and weapons put aside, the group settled down. They all took their pick of places to sit in the various chairs, couches, and ledges around the cave. Star was still eyeing Cate and Tobias timidly, and Paul kept an arm around her waist, trying to calm her down. Tobias spoke first. "First off, are we going to let them come to us or are we going to come to them? We'd have the advantage of ground if we stayed here."

"You haven't ever heard that a good defense is a good offense?" Screw mortality, screw vampire hunters, David's arrogance was not about to let Tobias act above him. Tobias recognized the challenge and shook his head. He knew that butting horns with David, as much as he would like to do it, wouldn't help the situation. "Look. We can argue about who's first in command here, or we can get down to business."

Star spoke, her voice seeming very small compared to the others. "I think we should stay."

They all turned towards her. She shrank back a little, biting her lip, and Paul gave her waist a reassuring squeeze. He then nodded at Tobias "With her and Laddie here, we need someplace to keep them safe. I know Star here can wield a mean pillowcase and bust a few crazy dance moves, and Laddie here could chew their ankles off but….battle ain't their thing." Star giggled nervously and gave Paul an appreciative glance out from under her long eyelashes. She was glad he could still be funny considering the circumstances. It comforted her. He continued, "If we just left them here while we went out, we're keeping an open….er…an open…"

"Flank?" Tobias offered.

"Huh?"

"Flank. An open flank." Paul stared at him quizzically. Tobias ignored him and continued. "That's true. I guess we have to take them into consideration."

"Damn right you do. They're part of our pack too. Fine, I agree we stay here, set up barricades, you can make trapdoors and tripwires and whatever fun goodies you want to do, _occisor_. They'll be here as soon as it's dark enough for them to come out." David had backed down only slightly from challenging Tobias, lounging like a tomcat in his makeshift throne, which he had quickly claimed during introductions.

"Why don't we just find them during the day. We have a few hours left. Time enough to have some fun." Cate murmured, tossing her dark hair back in a fluid movement. She had sat in the chair next to David's, her legs were stretched out and heeled boots resting on his ornate armrest.

"We'd waste too much time trying to find them. Star?" Tobias asked gently. He saw the girl was quite nervous and felt badly for her. She reminded him of Cate before…everything had happened. "Star, would you feel comfortable staying with the boy in one of the back rooms? We would have to stay out here of course."

"But there would be no way out if something happened!" Paul objected.

"It would be better than having them anywhere near the brawl that's going to go down."

Star scooted closer against Paul. He was being so protective of her….she liked it. She wished he could be silly again though….that always made her feel better….but she guessed it wasn't a good time to be funny. "Paul, I think he's right."

Paul looked disgruntled but nodded, his lips curving in a small frown.

"All right, good girl." Tobias smiled warmly at her. Star smiled back. At least one of them was nice. The girl, the one with the knives, still put her on edge. Tobias nodded to Paul and David, "I'm best in some elevated position with my bow. Cate is best on the floor. What about you two?"

Paul and David exchanged glances. Neither of them had ever really been in a fight more than Boardwalk street fisticuffs, but both were relatively competent with blades. "Floor" David said flatly. "Just give us something sharp."

"Don't worry, we have plenty."

"We could always melt down your earring if we needed more metal" Cate said, uncrossing and crossing her ankles again and smirking, not even bothering to look up at David's furious glare.

Tobias stood and motioned to Cate. "All right then. I'm going to go scout out some places. Paul, David, if you would…just show Cate around, all the entrances and exits, so we can know where we need to put blocks or bodies."

As Tobias turned, Paul quickly looked at David and touched his nose, smiling. _Not me._

David gave him the most annoyed look he could muster. _Oh God. You are so freaking childish._

Paul quickly took advantage of his win. "I'll go find a place for Star and Laddie…David can show you around, Cate, he's given a lotta tours round this old place."

Cate stood up gracefully and crossed her arms. "Sounds dreamy" she answered sweetly.

**OUT ON THE BOARDWALK**

The temperature was slow to cool that night. The painfully obvious tourists, with their garish clothes and snapping cameras, were the first to go. Following them were teary-eyes children, pulled along by their mothers, begging for one more ride but not realizing that within the next hour they would be dead asleep from the tiring day. Sunsets along the beach were always nice to look at – never as beautiful as the ones you saw in travel brochures, but nice enough to attract a few stragglers. When the sun was finally down and the streetlamps flickered to life, the underground began emerging.

Tristan felt the wool of his robe cooling down along with the night air. He sat on a bench facing the ocean, taking in the growing scent of salt and moisture. The rest were out hunting before they would head out to the cave. Tristan did not care to join the hunt – his followers were young and still hot to feed. They had much to learn. He was older and knew he could choose when and where to make a kill, not driven by hunger or by desire. He murmured under his breath, fingering the rosary he held with weathered hands. The beads reflected a dull, whitish light – if anyone had looked closer, they would have realized their origin. They were teeth. Human teeth, strung together with consummate care with onyx beads and thread. No crucifix adorned the end. Tristan wore no other ornaments - such things did nothing but distract from one's life path. His head was meticulously shaven and glowed like an orb reflecting the beach sunset, his features mature and cavernous. He looked like a monk of some strange order, not a human religion, but of something much deeper and darker.

He was a slow and careful killer. A thinker. He knew the Lost Boys were either dead or severely disadvantaged, but he had let the other go out to feed while he planned – there was no reason to charge off to the cave immediately. He would let whatever remained of the pack sit and stew – anticipation and fear would make them more likely to make mistakes. Paul was still there, he knew that. Oh, Paul, you thought you could just up and run? My little magpie, my little fool. You thought another pack would really protect you? You thought that after I took you in to teach you the self-discipline of the higher order, you could simply leave it all behind? You were nothing but a mindless child, caught up in the whirlwind of the world, until you found the calm in the center of it with me. You are my child, and betrayal of one to his sire has only two outcomes. It is either resign yourself to me, as was the purpose of your creation , or death. Tristan smiled a thin-lipped smile briefly to himself. Santa Carla could be a nice hunting ground. Full of misguided human driven entirely by lust and material things, puttering about in their insignificant lives with no idea what horrors were to be thrust upon them.

There was still some time before they would head out to the cave. Tristan allowed himself to become absorbed in his memories.

_It was almost twenty-five years ago to the day. Joseph, Paul, and Talus has burst into the abandoned church that had been their home, finding Tristan on one of the front pews, reading. The trio were extremely shaken and were sporting fresh scars. Tristan quietly dog-eared the page, put down his book, and looked at them expectantly. He was not used to being bothered while the boys were on hunt, but he saw that this was something requiring his attention. Talus was the first to speak, his voice cracking. "Lath is dead."_

_Tristan's face did not betray the sudden stony feeling that hardened in his chest. "Lath …" he repeated slowly. The three boys nodded. Paul could not make eye contact. _

_Talus continued, convincing himself that if he were the first to relay the news and transfer the guilt, he could not be blamed. "We were up in the motel district."_

"_That's quite out of your way. You know we have hunters about. An occisor mortui would easily be able to track you there. Cover is scarce."_

"_We knew…it was Paul's idea."_

_Paul started and shot Talus an angry, surprised look. Talus went on. "We were ambushed. It was Cail and his brothers. We didn't try to fight, really, they were too many."_

_Tristan nodded. "That was the correct decision, child. Continue."_

"_Lath was caught. He called for us. Joseph and I came back to try to fight them off but…Paul kept going and we couldn't do it alone."_

_Joseph, who had remained silent, murmured coldly "It was Paul's fault."_

_Paul whirled on the two of them "You assholes!"_

"_Paul, Language, please." Tristan made a low, grumbling sigh. Lath had been his favorite child. He had been priming him to lead the pack. Lath was headstrong but incredibly courageous, a darkly handsome youngster of about seventeen in human years, but older than the rest of the boys in other respects. His death was a huge blow to pack hierarchy. Tristan rubbed his brow and turned away from the boys. "We will discuss this more tomorrow night. Stay in for now."_

_Joseph shot Paul and angry look and stalked off. Talus shrugged. "Really...it was your fault." Paul was not one usually given to violence, so he resisted the urge to throw his packmate to the floor. They had blamed him intentionally. Bastards._

_Very early in the evening, when it was just barely safe to go outside and the others were still sleeping, Paul had slipped off. Tristan knew quite well that the boys were blaming Paul on purpose. At first, he felt sorry for his charge. That was until he found out that Paul had made his way to Santa Carla and taken up with Max. Max! Tristan hated the man. Max was an upstart, fancying himself a head vampire of all things, only trying to start a pack to protect his own skin. _

_And that favorite of his, David, nothing more than an uncontrollable hothead who would end up getting the rest of the pack killed. Tristan had met the young delinquent only by chance. He remembered how Max had introduced him, only days after he had picked up the young man off the streets. Tristan had looked David up and down distastefully. A thin, dirty, unshaven young vampire with fiery eyes who obviously thought that he did not need anyone's help. If there was one thing Tristan abhorred, it was unwarranted arrogance. The last time he had been to Santa Carla, in order to order Max to return Paul, he met with David again, noting that the young man had grown much stronger and was sporting a more confident gait, but that unheeding fire still lurked in his pale blue eyes. David had threatened him, and Tristan had scoffed. Who did this ruffian think he was….but, not wanting to start a war, Tristan left. It was not the time to start the war._

But now, it was.

How dare Paul forsake his own sire, and for such a substitute? It made Tristan's skin crawl.

He had not forgotten about the leader of the hunters, the chief _occisor mortui_, who had killed Lath. He tracked Cail to New Mexico, finding out too late that the hunter had been killed, leaving behind a small son and daughter only, who had been immediately snatched up by the hunters' ring to raise. There would be time enough to kill them. Revenge would be sweeter once they had grown and been taught their trade. He kept information about them coming in over the years, everything diligently filed into his memory. His source had also proved worthy in telling him their current location. Santa Carla.

Tobias and Catherine Aedair, children of Cail and Flor.

Killing three birds with one stone. Tristan smiled as he felt the approach of another behind him. A throaty female voice sounded in his ear. "Are we ready?"

"Sorscha. Are my boys back?"

"They are." The voice betrayed a soft Southern accent. Not the garish kind that one might hear in a dime theater, but a darkly musical tone, lilting, alluring.

"Do not give me a reason not to trust you."

Sorscha leaned down, gray eyes drawn in a smile. "I will not. You know my purpose."

She was tall and lean, her proud posture displaying her age – Tristan suspected she was much older than even he. She was beautiful in a strange way – as if one could call a deadly creature such as a rattlesnake or a shark beautiful. She was extremely powerful, he knew. It was good to have her on his side…that is, if she was true to her word. _It had been hard enough to find her._

Her long fingers delicately gripped his shoulder. "Strange isn't it, that so many desire children, yet we go to destroy ours."

"Betrayal deserves such retribution. That is the way of it" Tristan said, rising and pocketing his rosary delicately.

He could hear his boys talking as they approached. Sorscha continued looking out towards the sea, her eyes as grey as the waves. It was time to finish what had been started. Waiting this long had tested even her own patience…but it was all to be over soon. The flawless porcelain of her skin wrinkled ever so slightly into a smile. "I'm coming, David, my child."

Neither of them saw the form of a small child, darting off down the road.

**MEANWHILE**

"Dead" Cate said cheerfully. David felt her knife against the side of his neck and grunted defeat. She let off and they circled again. For the past two hours she had been drilling him outside in the evening heat on knifework . He was getting very tired of hearing "Dead! Dead. You're dead. Dead as a doornail, David!" in various tones of voice as she constantly got the upper hand. His shirt was practically plastered to his chest with sweat. Cate, on the other hand, seemed as fresh as ever, her skin only mildly flushed.

David darted in and turned, grasping her left wrist as he went to twist her around. Instead of resisting, she followed his pull and spun out. Her right arm flashed forward, but David deflected the blow with his own knife.

Circle.

He tried again, this time striking low. He realized too late that Cate had anticipated his move and gone low herself, and her foot came into contact with his head with a thud. Momentarily disoriented, he backed off. Cate pounced, knocking the knife from his hand and driving hard into his chest.

He hit the ground in a cloud of dust with Cate holding his right arm to the ground, her knees on his chest. Her knife tickled the skin of his abdomen just above his belt."Dead. Again. Don't go in low. You have weak calfs. You can't stay on the balls of your feet well enough."

"Oh?" David growled. "You turn your body at an angle every time you come in. All I have to do is aim a blow to the right."

"Ever think that I was doing that intentionally?"

"Everything you do is intentional. That's why I went left."

"That's right. Everything I do is intentional. I do what I want, get what I want." Cate got off David's chest and sheathed her knife, snickering. "I'm heading back in, I think I've beaten you enough." She started walking and spoke again, seemingly talking to herself, "I would have made a good vampire, I think. I'd never miss a kill."

David got to his feet and retrieved his own knife. "And why is that?"

Cate started walking past him, back to the cave, with a gait somewhere in between a saunter and a swagger. She slowed briefly as she passed him and leaned her head towards his, her voice dropping to a murmur. "Why don't you tell me why?" Her hand passed briefly under his shirt and across his chest as she continued walking past him. As soon as her hand left contact with his skin and he was sure her eyes were no longer on him, David let the heat that had been pulsing in his spine pass up through his shoulders in a violent shiver.

An important thing he had realized about being human was that although most of his senses were dulled, as compared to before, his sense of touch had increased dramatically. Sensitivity to pain (his ear still hurt badly) had skyrocketed, as well as sensitivity to pleasure. The skin where she had just touched him felt incredibly alert; he could almost feel the nerves firing and blood flowing. Pleasure in a vampiric sense had been more mental. The kill and the blood that came with it was the climax of an indescribable combination of spirit and emotion. Before, he usually never got to the point of actually sleeping with the girls he had teased into coming back to the cave. His intention wasn't sex, it was death. The few times it had progressed to that point he had found it almost boring, concentrating more on waiting until he could finally sink his teeth into their necks, sliding them in as deftly as a scalpel. _That_ moment was what sent thrills of pleasure through his body. Things were definitely different now. He wondered if…

_Stop thinking about sex. I'll be as bad as Paul before I know it. I'm letting her play me like an instrument. Why don't I turn the tables on her, then. Get my pride back. _

_Speaking of good ideas_….So, Tristan and his fangs thought that they could run him over like a daffodil with a tractor just because his teeth weren't as sharp as their anymore? They thought finishing off another pack - _his_ pack - would be easy pickings?

He was going to show them. He would take them all down one by one if he had to. Take them down and hang their guts from the ceiling of the cave, _his cave_. He could smell blood, human and vampire alike, coppery and hot, flowing out and turning the dirt floor to mud. His eyes were almost tearing already at the smoke from decaying vampire bodies that would fill the room.

Exquisite. He bared his teeth slightly out of habit as he felt something brewing deep inside his head. Something that would be just waiting to boil over when it all went down.

No one took his turf, no one killed his friends, and no one, _no one_, NO ONE killed him.

No matter if he was human or vampire. Mortality was insignificant.

He flexed the muscles in his shoulders contentedly, noticing on his arms that his skin was turning the slightest shade of beige, marked with ripples of arteries. He could feel the vibrations of his heart pumping. Feeling the air filling his lungs. Feeling warm with anticipation of the fight to come. Feeling alive.

No more sleek coldness, fancy flying tricks, or disfigured features. Those things were all for show. Nothing more than something from a child's Halloween house. They didn't matter. He was mortal, human, flushed with life, out for blood. Alive. Very alive.

Nobody. Ever. Kills. David.

He headed inside. The sun had set.

**INSIDE**

It was brilliant! Just brilliant!

"Holy water balloons!" Paul exclaimed, running into the main room with his characteristic gawky gait. Dwayne had always told him he looked like a colt when he ran. All legs and nothing else.

Cate and Tobias were sitting down, the former taking inventory and sharpening knives, the latter stitching up a small tear in her leather boots with a long needle. Paul's boisterous entrance caused them both to look up in confusion. Cate raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Holy water balloons! I can't believe no one has ever thought of this before!"

"I can."

"You have got to be kidding. This isn't a game show."

Paul was so excited he could barely get his idea out in plain English. "Tobias, you get only one bad guy per arrow right? Of course, of course, unless one guy stands behind the other guy and you're really close and…wait, anyway ok, one per arrow, but but BUT if he use holy water balloons you can get tons at the same time, or at least hurt them enough so that they're easier to kill, you can just shoot the balloons, not the guys!"

Tobias was completely bewildered. "Shoot what?"

"Holy water balloons. Make holy water balloons, throw and shoot! Acid rain to vampires, right? How about that!"

Paul looked ridiculously proud of himself, hair askew and green eyes positively popping out of his head. Star had obviously already complimented him on his idea. He held his neck up his and turned his face to the side like a statue, flashing a smile "Well?"

Cate and Tobias were silent. They were still processing Paul's mad pattering.

"Actually…." Cate started slowly, stroking her knife's handle, "that's not a bad idea. Dirty trick. I like it. It would make my work on the floor a lot easier if half of them were distracted, or blind, or dead…."

Paul glowed.

"Nice idea, kid."

It was then that Laddie came running pell-mell into the cave and tugged on Paul's leg. Paul bent down and listened. Laddie whispered for quite a long time until Paul stood back up, his face stony. He had known there would be many…but not a dozen plus Tristan himself and an unknown but obviously powerful woman. "Who's Sorscha?" he mumbled to himself.

At that point David had come back in. His head whipped around. "What did you say?" his gravelly voice dropped two notes lower.

"Sorscha? Laddie said he was out and saw Tristan and the gang, and there was a woman named Sorscha with them."

But David hadn't listened past the first word. He turned on his heel and disappeared into the tunnel leading to his room where his extra weaponry was waiting. His stomach was churning. How on earth had Tristan found Sorscha? Why was she even allied with him? Could she be gunning for him? This was turning from a street fight into some kind of insane crusade out of the movies. Only in movies, the deaths are fake. These would be real.

David came to his room and immediately looked for something to take out his anger on. His hands were positively shaking with rage. What the hell had he done to deserve this? Tristan and company were one thing, but Sorscha was in a league of her own. She could wipe them all out with one fell swoop. His hand found an empty beer bottle and he hurled it across the room. It shattered on the opposite wall with a resounding tinkle of glass. He was about to throw the next thing he laid eyes on when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

He knew it was Cate before she even said anything. "Hey. Relax."

He angrily shook off her hand and sat on his bed. "I'm not in the mood for your crap. Get out."

Cate stood unmoving.

"GET OUT NOW!" David roared like a bull.

He swiped his arm through mid air and pointed to the door. He saw Cate still had not moved, and put his head down, elbows on his knees, and wrapped his hands around the back of his neck.

"What do you want?" His voice was still smoldering.

Cate walked over and sat next to him, turning so she could look him in the face. There was no smirk on her face, no hint of teasing. She unwrapped his fingers from his neck and firmly held his head up. David obliged.

Cate reached down to her right boot and picked her stitching needle out of a tiny sheath in its side. It had a bit of black thread through the eyehole, which she deftly plucked out. She reached forward and David started.

"I'm not going to bite you. This time." Her voice was soft but flat.

She reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out his lighter. She snapped her fingers expertly over the switch and the flame burst to life. David kept his head up, half curious and half suspicious. Cate ran her needle through the flame a few times and then shook it briefly.

She moved her left hand from his neck to the back of his uninjured ear, and before he could protest, he felt the sting of the needle going through his earlobe. He started to say something, but didn't want to move considering there was a sharp object near his neck held by a nutcase. Cate held the needle in place and moved her free hand to her own ear, unhooking one of small silver studs. She reached forward and slid it through David's ear, pulling her needle out at the same time. She placed the needle back in her boot sheath and cocked her head to one side.

She spoke quietly, her usual nonchalance giving way to a genuine apology, "I'm sorry about your other ear."

David's anger had given way to complete confusion. He rewound what had just happened in his head, and played it forward again – it still didn't make sense. Cate stood, leaned over, and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. She didn't pull away immediately, and for a minute there was a heavy silence in the room. She had moved her head slightly, as if readying herself to stand, but she didn't. Her lips were actually touching his, just barely brushing them, and for a fraction of a second they remained perfectly still. David's head was spinning, feeling her hot breath on his mouth, and for a moment the only thing in his head was a barely containable desire to put his hands around her waist and pull her down. This wasn't just the teasing he had quickly come to hate. This was something mutual. She wasn't in charge, she wasn't controlling the situation – this time, it was he who was the one causing her to stay. _She_ didn't want to leave _him, _and vice versa The tension was almost unbearable_. Is this me turning the tables like I said_?

"So did you come here with the actual intention of trying to seduce me? For all you knew I was still a vampire." David said quietly in what he thought was a playful voice.

Suddenly, Cate jerked her head away and stood up. He couldn't place the expression on her face. It looked like she had hit some sort of mental roadblock and was at a loss as to how to cross it. The look quickly dissolved to her usual smirk, and venom tinged her voice as she spoke over her shoulder, heading out the door "You're right, I didn't know if you were or not. Maybe I was just curious about what it felt like to fuck a dead man."

The door slammed and David's jaw dropped at the same time. "What….the hell?" he said to no one in particular. The tables had been turned again in the space of a few seconds. She had suddenly become a deer in the headlights and he wasn't sure if it was his doing or something in her own head. The hard lump that began to form in his chest made him realize he wasn't angry or humiliated…he felt genuinely hurt. It wasn't a feeling he was used to. Only two people in his long life had ever truly hurt him, hurt him down to his bones, down to the very core of him - Star, when she made it clear that she didn't want to have anything to do with him, and Sorscha. He didn't know what he had done. It was as if she had suddenly pulled a Jekyll and Hyde. He found it almost impossible to stop the lump rising up his throat, and it made its way out of his mouth in a small, coughing noise. It was the closest to crying he had ever come in his entire life, and he quickly decided that now would most certainly not be the time he would actually do it, so he focused on catching his breath and coming back to reality. _No one kills David, and you can be god damn certain that David does NOT cry._

He gingerly felt the new piercing. It had barely even hurt. He wasn't sure if he should be flattered or utterly weirded out by her strange gift, and why she chose to give it. He also wasn't sure exactly what had happened with the kiss, or half-kiss, whatever it had been. He secretly hoped he would be around long enough to ask her. Maybe he wouldn't be having quite so many words with her after this was all said and done…assuming they made it.


	6. Control

**Hey guys. Rating's been moved up cause, well after writing this chapter I realized I dropped the f-bomb quite a bit, and due to being sexually repressed (damn boyfriend away for summer - yeah TMI, I realize...) things passed the PG mark in a few places. in that respect (muahhahah)... Anyway, here we go...**

"Don't worry, we're going to be fine!" Paul tried a lopsided smile but found it didn't quite come. "We're gonna bury these bloodsuckers."

Star sat on the floor, keeping her eyes on the floor so he couldn't see the doubt. _I just got them back. And now I'm going to lose them again. Michael would...would Michael have known what to do? _She didn't know. All she knew was that it seemed that she and Laddie were never going to find a place to be.

Paul sat down beside her and tipped her chin up, his hand hesitating a bit and his cheeks blushing. "Hey, you don't believe me? Are you ok?"

Star bit her lip and didn't answer, trying to fight back the large drop of liquid that was about to fall from the corner of her eye and down her cheek.

"Paul?" Tobias's voice drifted in from farther up in the cave.

"We have to go now. Keep the door locked all right? We - I - won't let them get through. Ok?"

"Yes." Star's voice was shaky and subdued. God. Paul felt it pull on his heartstrings terribly. He wasn't one prone to "the mushy stuff" as he called it in front of the guys, but this was Star. He leaned forward and gave Star a small kiss on the cheek, and then leaned back in slight embarrassment. " I won't let em."

Star suddenly hugged him fiercely, with more strength than he could have thought the small girl could muster. He felt her shoulder's heave a bit and cautiously brought a hand up to stroke her hair. Despite the gravity of the situation...he felt a small thrill of satisfaction course up his spine.

"I won't."

**MAIN ROOM**

Tobias was about to take his position on a ledge about thirty feet up the cave wall when Cate strode past him in a flurry of dark hair. "Cate?"

She ignored him and kept moving.

"Cate!"

Tobias glanced back to where she had come.

_He had always been protective of her, even all the way back when they were young. If any of the other children in the clan decided to pick on Cate for one reason or another, they would have to answer to Tobias's small but purposeful fist. He was four years older than she and, after the very early death of their father, had taken on the role of defender. He loved Cate fiercely. He grew up a serious, quiet boy, who seemed to come to adulthood far quicker than what was normal for a youngster. Childhood was a brief and almost forgotten flash of a memory. He began his training a good three years before most did, and became one of the most respected young warriors of the clan. If only things had gone right from there, he and Cate would still be the same. She would still -_

He nearly bumped right into David, who was coming out of the tunnel as well.

Tobias put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "What just happened?" he asked calmly, making sure to keep his voice non-confrontational.

David snorted and began pulling on his black gloves in jerky, frustrated motions. "I don't know. Ask your sister why she uses herself as a weapon almost more often than her knives."

Tobias removed his hand and answered a bit haltingly. "She's been through a lot. She isn't who she used to me."

"Been through what? Enlighten me."

Tobias turned away and began locking his first arrow into place on the crossbow. "We don't have time for this."

"Summarize, then." David's dangerously low voice indicated that the hounds of hell could be beating down their doors but he would still wait for an answer. Tobias's hands hesitated on the bow.

"David, we don't have -"

"Humor me."

Tobias sighed and his voice barely registered as he kept one eye behind him and the other on the ground. "You know we come from a family of hunters. Our clan was attacked and we were separated at a young age."

_"Flor, get the children, now! Get them out!"_

_"Cate, keep up! Catherine!" _

"Cate was taken by a small, start-up gang around the New Mexico area. She was only about fifteen at the time, so she couldn't do much."

_" Keep that tight around her mouth., The little bitch can bite like a fucking alligator."_

_"I'll show her who can bite."_

_"Leave her!"_

_"She's a god damn hunter whelp, what else do you suggest we do with her?"_

I was nineteen. They weren't intent on using her for food, or turning her. They just wanted to use her for...for fun."

"Fun?" David had a good idea what that meant. And it explained a lot why she had suddenly balked when he had tried to make a move.

"Yes. I led a raid to get her back, and we succeeded...but she was never the same. "

"All right. Then why does she insist on messing with my head?"

Tobias gave him a questioning look. "Messing with -?" his eyes fell on the glint of silver in David's right ear, and he slowly made the connection. "Oh. She...she does that sometimes. Usually with people she's intimidated by." He chuckled slightly. "I guess you should take that as a compliment, it takes a hell of a lot to scare Cate. I think its some sort of way to feel..." he trailed off, unable to find the right word.

"In control." David knew the ending of the sentence. A nagging voice in the back of his head reminded him that he had been intent on doing the very same thing for the same reason.

"I'm supposing so. It's the one habit, or remnant if you will, I haven't really been able to shake loose from her...just give her some patience." Tobias's dark brown eyes were almost pleading as he looked at David. "She's...she's my sister." he said simply. "There's nothing more to say."

A blood-curdling shriek rang in the stagnant air of the cave. It sounded like a mortally wounded animal being dragged along behind a truck. The noise died off into a gurgle, followed by Cate's roar of triumph "Come on guys, can't do this by myself!"

The attack had begun.

**FIVE MINUTES LATER**

With blood coursing from his face and shoulders in ribbons, Paul was driving furiously against a hugely muscled vampire with a deep wound to his back. In any other circumstances, this behemoth would have made short work of Paul, but an expert shot by Tobias and a tossed plastic bag full of holy water had blinded him in one eye.

He swung a long weapon that looked like a medieval cat-o-nine tails, with large, glinting pieces of metal embedded in the leather straps. Paul sidestepped, wincing as he felt a tendon in his calf strain from the angle. He was being backed up against the far tunnel, the tunnel that led to Star and Laddie's barricade, and was determined not to pass the entrance.

Tobias was deftly shooting any makeshift water bomb that Cate managed to toss up to him from his high position of the ledge. She had a small arsenal stashed in a pack against her waist, but it was getting worryingly light. Paul's idea had indeed worked, but only for a while. The pack had caught on quickly. Two had been killed buy the first shot, and a few injured by the rest, but after that, the remaining half dozen had gotten wise and cleared out whenever they heard the twang of the bow. Tobias realized he was also getting low on arrows. Five.

Cate herself was a demon. She was everywhere at once, her knives flashing as they slices through cloth, skin, and muscle. She still hadn't been able to get any real heart shots - the silver in her knife caused the wounds to burn more than usual, and delay any healing, but they weren't deadly. There were simply too many. Every time she had fought one down to the point where she had a good opening for a kill, another blow from another vampire came in. She was too quick to have been injured yet, but she knew it was only a matter of time. Sweat was pouring from her brow and off her neck as she tried to extricate herself from a position against a wall. Every time she darted to the side, her opponent stepped with her, no matter how she feinted. He was closing in on her, brandishing a large pickaxe, and she could see another vampire becoming interested in the proceedings after giving up trying to make Tobias lose his footing with a veritable barrage of small throwing knives. Two against one and in a corner was not a good position to be in.

David was doing the worst of any of them. He was bleeding profusely from a dozen places, including a deep cut across his forehead which was dripping blood into his eyes. He saw Cate being cornered through a red, wet haze and bulled his way against the larger of the two vampires. They hit the ground together in a flurry of dust and David's heart jumped all the way up into the back of his mouth. The dirt clung to the blood in his eyes, and he was completely blind. He panicked. "_Oh hell, oh no, oh god damn it" _his mind babbled He lashed out with his knife, hearing a roar of pain, and tried to roll off in order to clear his face. But before he could, he hear d a sharp whine and felt a swoosh of air past his cheek. Warm blood splattered up into his face and he scrambled to his knees, wiping his face. Tobias was standing next to him, the last arrow buried in the vampire's heart. The body twitched violently and smoke began to rise.

Without a word Tobias tossed away the bow and draw a large hunting knife. He spoke breathlessly over his shoulder to David. "I'm going after the leader at the front. Watch the floor and for God's sake make sure Paul doesn't get backed into the tunnel." David turned to see Paul was holding his own, barely. For a second, he stopped and watched, admiring. He never would have though Paul could prove to be such a fighter. It was almost surreal seeing the kid bleeding and slashing with the best of them.

The moment's hesitation cost him dearly. He screamed as a blinding pain exploded from his shoulder and tried to whirl. Cate's second opponent had picked up the first's pickaxe and buried it directly into his back. Smoke rose and David realized dimly that she had killed it, but a fraction of a second to late.

He couldn't breathe. The pain as so intense it felt as if his entire body had contracted and convulsed into a unmoving piece of rock. His lungs wouldn't expand. He heard Cate scream something, but then his legs gave out from under him and he felt his body hit the dirt with such force that stars exploded in his head. _I'm going to die. I'm going to die. _The words grew fainter and fainter in his head as he slipped into blackness.

With a howl and a final effort, Paul regained a few feet of distance from the cave entrance. He heard David and Cate both scream, and his head whipped around to the front of the cave.

Tristan. Untouched in the fray, imposing, like a stony Greek status from the blackest regions of hell

And he was holding something.

"_Proeliati, recurrete_!"

The remaining vampires, numbering a bloody and battered five, backed off. The beast in front of Paul licked his lips and stepped backwards, still holding his knife out.

The mind-rattling noise and fluster of the cave had gone eerily silent. Why had he called him off? The only sound was heavy breathing.

"See this." Tristan's voice rumbled, speaking in hsi characteritc clipped tone. "We leave you now. You see what we will do. This is your fate. Reflect. We shall return tomorrow, and you shall all suffer the same."

Tristan stared at Paul, who shivered slightly. But his attention as diverted by am unearthly howl of rage. Paul saw Cate charge up the stairs and he sprinted across the floor, tackling her to intercept her. "Cate! Cate, stop! It's frigging suicide to go up there alone, STOP!"

She clawed at him, screaming incoherently, almost frothing at the mouth with animalistic hatred. Paul held her head to the ground . It took all his strength to hold her. As the enemy filed out, Paul glanced up. Tristan remained for a minute after the others, still holding his trophy. And Paul saw why Cate has snapped.

Tobias's head.

**SEVEN HOURS LATER**

The smells of burning flesh, blood, and exhaustion lay heavily throughout the cave like a humid summer night. Paul and Star had been taking watch turns in case the pack returned, but they didn't. As the sun began to peek over the horizon, Paul went back to Star and Laddie's room and was asleep in an instant, sore and utterly spent. They had all been up for the last twenty-four hours, and it was beginning to show.

David had awakened from his faint and was refusing all help or attention. The pickaxe blow had been poorly aimed - the sharp point had gone into the muscle and, due to its curve, come back out. It hurt awfully and he had had lost a considerable amount of blood, but he would live. He was walking, half-limping, in circles around the cave like a wounded jaguar, cursing his misfortune. He had been informed of Tobias's death and was beginning to wonder if they had even the slightest chance now. His mind was too weary, too bereft of emotion, to figure out how he felt about it. Cate had left as soon as the sun rose. They had let her go, knowing that if anyone needed time to deal with the situation, it was her. David stopped pacing and leaned against the wall. He was dead tired. Completely drained. He had never felt pain for this long or wanted sleep so badly, but his mind was racing.

"Its morning. you need to sleep for tomorrow." Star's voice took on an almost motherly tone as she came up behind him, placing a small hand on his arm. He thought about arguing, but his spinning head began to think about nothing but bed. God, he ached. "Come on." Star led him back to his bedroom and he flopped down on the bed. "Are you all right?"

David's gravelly voice had been reduced to a soft, breathy rumble. "Fine. I'm fine."

Star caressed his shoulder and leaned over, giving him a chaste kiss on the neck. "Sleep. Please, David, sleep."

"Star?"

"What is it?"

David' voice barely registered as the last remnants of conciousness left him. He sounded like a small, tired child. "Star. I'm sorry." She stood, hearing his breath grow more soft and even, and headed back to her own room where Paul was already asleep. She knew he was sorry. He had been for years.

Star turned and went back to her own room where Paul was already asleep in the bed, Laddie curled up in an armchair. She watched them both for a while. _I'm so scared. For you. For me. For all of us. _She crept over to the bed and lay down next to Paul, and, after only a seconds hesitation, snuggled in, tucking her head underneath his chin. Paul made a small noise, but she wasn't sure if he was awake or not. She didn't move, feeling his chest go in and out, in and out, in and out. His body was warm.

"Star?" Paul's voice was sleepy and quiet. Star pushed against him harder and felt his arm come around her with an endearingly boyish hesitation. "Star. We're going to make it. I promise."

Star closed her eyes, letting sleep overtake her. At least for a few minutes, she could feel safe.

**OUTSIDE**

Cate had cried furiously until she felt that every drop of saltiness that could be wrung from her body had gone. Her chest was hollow, empty. She hadn't even been able to grasp the gravity of the situation yet.

_I am alone. I am alone. My brother is dead, my family is dead. I have nothing left. _she kept repeating, but her mind was dull and unresponsive.

She hadn't gone far, having spent the last hour barging her way along the rocky sides of the cave wall, circling, following them out along the oceanside, striking whatever hard surface she could find with her knives. A trail of sparks followed her in the muted dimness of the sunrise, punctuated by inarticulate sounds of rage and distress. Her muscles were now beginning to disobey her, their fibers already close to the breaking point from the fight, and she began flailing. Her elbow struck a sharp outcropping and she draw a jagged inward breath, collapsing to the ground in a flurry of tears and choking noises.

There was a new huge, sucking hole inside her. Blackness. Her weak body pulled itself up and headed back along the rocks, reaching the cave in a few minutes. She managed to wipe the tears from her face and stumble down the stairs, her body beginning to betray her with its exhaustion.

_I am alone. God, I need something. I need something to forget this, I need to forget this. Now._

The cave was still dark despite the sunrise, and it stank of dead. It was like entering a slaughterhouse. Blood and burning innards. Her stomach lurched despite herself and she managed to run instead of walk through the room and into the tunnel leading to the back rooms.

_I need to forget this._

The cave was in complete silence. Everyone was asleep, the rooms were dark except for the dim glow of a few ancient lamps that could still be used thanks to what Paul referred to as their "free electricity" - the only remaining remnant of the hotel's connection to the outside world . She passed her room, Paul's room, and stopped at David's. He was lying on his stomach, and she felt a twist of guilt upon seeing the wound in his back. But guilt wasn't what was on her mind at the moment. She closed the door behind her, not caring that it closed with a loud noise, and pulled off her blood-stained shirt.

David started slightly, opening one dark blue eye halfway, as if waking up from a bad hangover. He winced, slowly trying to prop himself up on one elbow and feeling the deep scab of his wound pulling against his moving skin. "Cate? he managed a soft, questioning grunt, shaking off sleep as best he could. "Mmmph. What? What is it?" He closed his eyes again and rubbed them with his free hand. At least she was back. He had almost thought that she would take off on some one-woman rampage. His body was telling him to lie back down, sending throes of dizziness through his brain and limbs. "Cate, are you - "

He didn't get the finish his sentence. Before he could protest, her lips were pressed against his with such unyielding ferocity that he dazedly wondered if she was attacking him. Her body was under the worn sheets and pressing against him with such force that he swore he could feel the blood pulsing in her veins, her hips digging in against his.

Immediately his body began to override his common sense. He knew what she was doing and why she was doing it. He desperately tried to pull away mentally, trying to get the words out "Cate...you don't want to do this." But even as he choked out the words whenever their lips parted to take in sharp, shallow breaths, his arms were moving around the small of her waist pressing her against him even tighter. She hooked one leg around his lower back and tensed the hand that was behind his head, letting her nails dig into the sensitive skin on the back of his neck. David bit his lower lip so hard it drew blood in a effort to stifle a moan. The thrills of pleasure running up his spine and in his abdomen were became almost painful as he tried to curb them.

"Cate - " Her nails dug into the back of his neck harder as if to silence him, and the growl that had been rumbling deep in his throat shot up into his mouth, rising it pitch as the fever of desperation overtook him. Cate's mind was blank. She didn't see herself, she didn't see David. She wasn't in her body. All she saw was flesh, blood, and a desperate need. They weren't people, they weren't even complete forms. It was complete and utter chaos, like someone had thrown paint buckets of every color all over the floor. Only heat, need, pleasure, nothing else. Her fingers had moved down to her pants as she expertly unbuttoned them and slipped them off one leg at a time, her mouth never leaving his. Her breath had turned ragged as her hands quickly went to his and began unbuckling his belt with increasing frenzy.

_I am alone. I have no one left._

Every single nerve in David's body was firing. With few girls he had slept with in the past, he had always been put in the place of initiator. He was in control, working them over like he had known every place on their body from the day he saw them. But Cate was not to be worked over. This was all her. She was aggressive, almost dangerously so. His body had absolute no idea how to react, and therefore had defaulted to its most basic level - pure, blind desire. He wasn't in control, and dimly realized that despite her sexual onslaught, she wasn't either. Her lips left his as she succeeded in unbuckling the belt, and pulled his pants off by the ankles. She shifted her body downward to get them off completely and, with devastating slowness, kissed his stomach, moving down to his navel, following the line of hair that led down from it.

David's abdomen twisted in pain and he breathed out forcefully. She knew what she was doing, She was going to drive him absolutely, completely crazy, so he couldn't resist or stop her.

But she stopped and came back up to meet him. In that fraction of a second, David regained enough presence of mind to make one last attempt at stopping what he knew was going to happen. He grasped both of her arms and flipped her over so she was lying under him, and brought his face down next to hers. "Cate." He didn't dare open his eyes, knowing that if he looked at her, he wouldn't be able to stop himself. "Don't do this. To yourself or me. Just don't. If you make me do this, I swear to God I'll go to the grave hating you with every fucking fiber in my body, and you'll do the same to me."

"If I _make_ you do this?" he voice was heavy and low and she slowly put her legs up around the small of his back. David realized he had chosen the worst position to incapacitate her advances. He tried to think about anything except how close they were, and desperately, fought the urge to move forward. God, she was so close. Her legs tightened, pulling him downward, and he cursed inwardly as his body complied. His entire body was shaking, as was hers.

_Don't. Don't you fucking move. Don't move. Don't -_

"David." her breathless voice resonated in his ear. The aggression was gone . It was a sound of complete submission, heavy with need. No one had ever said his name like that before. Ever. David couldn't hold himself back any longer, feeling her breath on his ear. Her voice was a throaty whisper. "David, please." O_h my God._

Their bodies shifted together and David pushed forward fiercely, feeling her legs tightened again around his waist as he did so.

_What's done is done_.

For a moment neither of them could move. Cate let out a small, breathy moan of triumph and arched her back. David had gripped the sheets beside him with one hand, leaving the other under Cate's head, his mouth half open, trying to breathe amidst the unstoppable rush of pleasure. Any last sparks of hesitation left his mind as he relaxed and pushed forward again.

Cate splayed her hands against his back, her nails leaving small, red marks, feeling David's hand move under her back to keep it arched. Her mind emptied itself of the day, and for a minute, she could feel nothing. No memories, no pain, it was like a drug flowing through her body and stopping her brain's synapses. Nothing.


	7. Equals

Sorscha's grey eyes flickered over the pack as they returned, missing nothing, though her features maintained a graceful expression of indifference. Tristan was the last to enter, and closed the door solidly behind him. They had chosen an abandoned warehouse at the far side of the beach as their refuge.

The monk-like vampire's hands were crusted with dried blood. Sorscha stopped him with a mere glance and looked pointedly at them. Tristan felt her mind probing, and decided that it would be better to keep up an air of trust and let his shield down.

"You killed the son of your hunter." Her darkly musical voice was tinged with displeasure. Tristan continued past her. "I did. We lost Roethe, Feyd, and Bran. The hunter-daughter was not injured, but we also deeply, perhaps mortally, wounded Max's pet."

"David, you mean." Sorscha could not help the corner of her sensuous mouth turning upwards in a smile.

"You are displeased, then? You wished to have taken him yourself? You should have come with us." Tobias sat at a rickety table at the side of the warehouse and drew out a flask, taking a long drink. The blood trickling down his throat and he felt warmth returning to his body. Sorscha's eyes were still upon him as he put down the flask, and he turned, not quite understanding her reaction.

Sorscha shook her head, her long earrings gliding back and forth fluidly with her graceful neck. "I'm not displeased. I just know it takes a lot more to kill a child of mine than you or your pack."

Tristan's hackles rose briefly, but he calmed himself. _Rage is weakness_. His cavernous features remained motionless. "You are welcome to come tomorrow night and see for yourself."

"I may. You know battling isn't for a respectable lady," she smiled and made a light clicking sound with her fangs, which had descending slightly, "but I shall see if I can be of help to you. You sha'ant touch my child, leave him to me. "

Tristan made a low grunt of disappointment and rose, the folds of his robe moving noiselessly to accommodate his frame. "I do not understand your attachment. You say you let him go of your own will, and you let him denigrate into nothing but a wayward, hot-tempered, spoiled child who believes himself indestructable. How can you remain so impartial towards him? You have no sense of betrayal, of anger at how he has disrespected the gift you gave him?"

"Denigrate?" Sorscha laughed sweetly, but her voice took on a sharp, steely edge. "Denigrate indeed. He was always as such since I met him in Atlanta, since his brothers died at Shiloh, since he took shrapnel to the heart at midnight in Antietam and I freed him from the shell of mortality. David was never one to refuse a fight. I learned that despite my power I could only tame him for a while, no more. It is you who refuse to accept that your own child is lost to you, not because of a wild nature but because you drove him to it. Paul was too young and you pushed him too hard. You turned him but a mere decade past, do not raise yourself up so far to tell me, with my children numbering in the hundreds of years of killing and ruling, that you are the more competent sire."

Tristan turned without uttering another word and padded noiselessly away. He didn't want her to see the anger in his face. Why is she behaving like this? She knew he had his own agenda to fulfill and had never once spoke against it. Until now.

_It is not revenge. Revenge is weakness. It is simple justice. Justice for Lath, justice for myself._

Still, he relished the thought of seeing that huntress bitch flailing in a pool of her own blood, Max's pet David reduced to a pitiful pile of rotting flesh, the agonized look in Paul's face as he realized that he could never, ever truly escape.

The sun was rising now, and it was time to sleep. Tomorrow night, the justice would be complete. The large vampire that had been fighting Paul stepped respectfully up to Tristan and laid down a burlap bag. It clanked on the ground, heavy with the sound of metal. Tristan did not turn, knowing that his subject would not raise his eyes without permission anyway. "You brought what I asked?"

"I did"

"Well done, son. You may go."

Tristan reached one hand into the bag and brought out a Glock 31. Its sharp mouth yawned like a dragon ready to breathe death. "No more knifeplay" Tristan murmured, stroking the surface of the gun briefly. "No more waiting. This time, it will be quick."

**EARLY EVENING**

Star had awoken first and managed to bring home some food while it was still light. Paul dove into the pizza with gusto, wondering in between gulps where Cate and David were. Cate's room was empty, and the door to David's was closed – which rarely happened. He must have been really tired.

"Star, did Cate ever come back?"

"I don't know. I thought I heard her come in….I hope she did, she needed to rest"

"Yeah. Damn. I don't even know what to say to her." Paul muttered glumly.

Star came over and ran a hand through his hair "I don't think she wants anything to be said. She'll be all right eventually."

Her hand slid teasingly down his face and, without hesitation, grabbed the slice of pizza from his hand. She danced away, giggling at her trophy and taking a huge bite. "Hey!" Paul crowed, thankful for some childish play interruption "You want me to starve? Gimme that back!" Star played keep away, laughing in between mouthfuls. Paul finally grabbed her around the waist and she shrieked playfully. "What do I have to do to get it back, huh? Huh?"

"Kiss me" Star said in between breaths, and laughed. She couldn't believe she said it. Paul couldn't either. "Err…" he turned her around and hesitantly touched his lips to hers.

_Holy jesus mother o God I'm kissing Star _

His triumphant thoughts were interrupted as he felt the remains of the slice of pizza unceremoniously smooshed into the side of his face. Paul let her go with a yell and rubbed at his eyes while Star convulsed into fits of laughter. They were interrupted by a loud thud of leather on wood. Cate had arrived, brusquely sitting down and slamming her heeled boots on the tabletop. Star gingerly handed Paul his piece of pizza back, gave Cate a timid look, like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "When did you get back?"

"Little while after sunrise." Cate's voice was husky but flat. She reached forward and took a slice of the pizza.

Neither Paul nor Star was quite sure if they should say anything. Laddie tottered out of Star's room, rubbing his eyes with a small fist. Paul was glad for the interruption. "Hey there little man, doin' allright?"

"Yeah" Laddie mumbled, making his way over to a chair near Star, who helped him get a small piece "Sorry, it's all I could find on short notice. Is it ok with you?"

"I like pizza." Laddie answered simply. The little boy had begun talking more after the whole Max incident, but his odd, curt replies still confused everyone. Star said it was just his way of learning to talk again.

Paul looked up. "Hey, David!"

David strode past them, not even bothering to look, and having not even bothered to dress fully either. He was shirtless, still unshaven, and his wound showed signs of having bled again sometime during the night. His blonde hair was matted and stuck out in all directions, still with small clots of dirt in it. _Jeez, he looks like shit_ Paul thought. Star put a hand on his shoulder and he stopped momentarily. "Your back! Did you scrape it on something?"

David gently removed Star's hand. He was obviously trying very hard to contain something that was brewing in his thoughts. "No. It's fine."

"Bad dreams Dave? Tossin and turning?" Paul offered, half-playfully, trying to coax a smile that he already knew wasn't going to come.

It didn't. David turned to continue walking. "No. I'm going down to the beach to wash it off."

Cate crossed and uncrossed her ankles with two resounding clanks on the wood. "You know better than to get yourself worked up when you have a scrape like that."

Before anyone could move, David had lunged at Cate. She was totally unprepared for his fist that came crashing into the side of her face. The blow reverberated sickeningly throughout the room, punctuated by Cate's shriek of surprise and pain as she fell to the floor. Paul and Star gasped. Laddie dropped his pizza and brought his legs up onto the chair.

"Bitch" the word hissed out of David's mouth as if he was spitting venom. As quickly as he had lunged, he backed off, turned, and was up the stairs of the cave to the outside. Star helped a bewildered Cate to her feet. Paul's mouth was still opening and closing wordlessly in disbelief, looking first at Cate, then at the entrance where David had disappeared. David could be an ass, but he would never, ever hit a girl. Ever. He wouldn't even push them. Hell, he wouldn't even use curse words in front of Star. What was going on? They were going to fall apart like this right at the worst possible time?

Cate was still stunned, but had recovered enough to brush herself off and hold her right nostril closed to stop a trickle of blood that was beginning to flow. She was at a complete loss for the second time after entering this god-forsaken cave. The first was when David returned her advances, the second was this. There was no Tobias to stabilize her. There was no Tobias to calm her or back her up if she was even momentarily unsure. She started out of the cave after David, a small choking noise coming from her throat. No one tried to stop her.

Paul tried to get Laddie to put his feet back down and lift his head. "Its ok, man, you know how David gets pissed sometimes…he doesn't mean it."

Laddie lifted his head enough to open one eye and survey the room. Star knelt down in front of him and opened her arms. "Laddie, it's all right."

Wordlessly, Laddie unfolded his limbs and got out of the chair to hug Star. Paul stood awkwardly, wishing he could do something. "Star?"

"Mm?"

"Are you guys gonna be ok back there? I mean, um…I have some stuff to drown out the fighting if you need."

Star raised a questioning eyebrow and Paul attempted a grin "Rockbox, man! You wouldn't be able to hear the loudest screech of the dyin' dead over that beauty."

Star smiled and stood, giving Laddie another two pieces of pizza and gently ushering him towards the main room to stretch his legs. "Paul, why are you being so nice to me?"

Caught, he shuffled his feet and his green eyes immediately focused on the floor. "Er….I don't know, you just seem so worried."

"I _am_ worried."

"I know, I meant you are worried. I just, um….wish there was something I could do. Besides "

Star bit her lower lip and smiled, stepping hesitantly forward to give him a hug. "You are doing something."

She was beginning to realize that Paul was quite possibly the nicest person she had ever met…at least to her. She had been so excited to start a new life with Laddie, a life of innocence, leaving all of this blood and killing behind, leave all of the people in her former life behind. But she was finding she didn't really want to leave Paul. Even back when the boys were all together…he had never been as vicious as David, as calculating as Dwayne, or as sly as Marko…he was always the oddball, the wildcard, the entertainment. And now, really, he had changed from being anything like them. The way he shuffled his feet and looked up at her with puppy eyes, the way his antics, instead of aimed at getting a laugh out of the boys, aimed at making her feel better…this _was_ the innocence she had been looking for.

Outside, David stepped down the rocks with practiced ease and slowly lowered himself into the waist deep water. It was still warm from the daylight and the salt stung the small wounds on his legs mightily, but he gritted his teeth and continued in until the water was up to his chest, and ducked his head under briefly. His back felt like a thousand fire ants had suddenly erupted from the wound, but again he made no sound. He took a deep breath and went underwater again. When he came up and shook the water from his eyes, he saw Cate standing on the rocks.

"The deal is off. Get off my property." David clicked his teeth together out of habit, despite his lack of fangs. This was one time he wished he had them. He continued ducking his head underwater, trying to get the dirt and blood out of his hair, as well as her scent that had clung to him maddeningly all day and into the evening. He had woken up with her head buried in his chest, her hair up against his face, and he had breathed in despite himself. She had smelled like steel and lavender.

_I knew it. I'm going soft._

He was sure becoming mortal had something to do with it. He hadn't even enjoyed the killing of the previous night. The scent of blood and the feel of terrified, squirming flesh used to send sparks of almost ecstatic pleasure through his body, but now the memories of it made him feel almost sick.

Cate pushed her dark brown hair out of her eyes. She felt her mental skin melting, being stripped away later by layer. It had started when she had seen Tobias killed, now it was down to a dangerously thin margin. Twenty-four hours ago, Cate Aedair would have merely laughed mockingly at David's angry reaction. She would have been focusing on the night ahead, readying herself to enter a state of bloodlust.

David growled to himself as she refused to move, and took a few slow steps towards her, the one-clear water dripping a dull brownish color from his wounded body. "You know, I thought you were a real warrior. A dyed-in-the-wool killer. But now, you're just some pathetically insane. And if you cross me, I will fucking bury, you do you hear me? _Bury_ you."

The iciness that had faded from his dark blue eyes during the past day was back again in full force, staring her down with contempt as if he could kill her right there. Cate sat down on the rocks, taking in a shallow breath and trying to force anger from her voice, but it came out more like slow-burning dejection. "You have no idea what its like to be completely alone, do you? You've always had one little pack or another, following you around like a line of bloodsucking ducklings."

He held his tongue and continued up out of the water, shaking the excess from himself in a barely noticeable shivering movement, like a wolf shaking itself dry. His resolve to hate her faltered slightly as he saw her sitting there. She crossed her arms over her knees and out her head down. "I have no one. My entire family, my entire clan, is dead. Do you know what that feels like? It's like being thrown out into the middle of the ocean, in the dark, with nothing but your own arms and legs to keep you above water. Even if you're the best fucking swimmer in the world, eventually you're going to give out, and you drown. I'm drowning right now."

"So why are you crying to me?" David grumbled and sat down next to her, but kept his distance by a few feet. "You do realize we're completely outnumbered tonight? And you choose now to have some sort of nervous breakdown?"

"Because I have no one else to talk to." Her voice was quiet, almost shameful.

"Thanks. That makes me feel special. Glad to know I could be your self-help object. Was that what last night was about too? Because there was just no one else?"

"That was different, and you know it."

"And why me?"

"Why you?"

"Yeah why me? Why am I the lucky recipient of this fixation of yours?"

"Why you? I'll tell you why." Cate's voice cracked as her words came spilling out. "Because I admire you. You're fiery, you're a giant fucking jerk who doesn't take anyone's shit, even mine. You're brave enough to throw yourself at a guy twice your size just to get me out of a corner, you don't ever, ever give up an inch, and maybe, just maybe, the reason you're helping us – me – isn't just because you want to help Paul, or Star, or the kid, maybe its because you know it's the right thing to do." Cate ran out of breath and coughed out a ragged sob

There was silence for a long time. There was a tension in the air between them, as if neither one knew whether to speak first.

Cate was painfully aware of a strange connection between them at that moment, as was David, neither one of them willing to speak first about it. There had been something different about him, she knew it from the first time they had met – and she had been digging her heel into his neck, she remembered with a small inward smirk. She was fascinated by his complete disregard for danger. Many enemies before him had begged, cursed, fought….she dispatched them all with little thought. But he was the first to challenge her, and not out of pride or fear, but because it was his nature. It had started with a wary admiration, but had quickly materialized into something else she couldn't put her finger on.

Beside her, David let out a resigned sound halfway between a growl and a sigh. "You're crazy. You know that don't you? You're a crazy, smart, driven, ridiculously attractive killer."

Cate stood abruptly and stepped in front of him. He stared up at her, his face dark. She spoke flatly "And you are too." David opened his mouth slightly to reply, but soon realized there was nothing to rebutt her remark. She was right. Cate looked at him steadily, her eyes red. "I was…unsettled…. by the fact that you're so much like me."

"Except I'm not insane and manipulative."

"Please. I think some of your former kills, if they were still alive, would beg to differ."

David was quiet for a moment. "Touche." His posture had relaxed and he put his elbows on his knees. He was beginning to realize that he just didn't want to fight with this girl anymore. And quite a few others things, as well, that he didn't want to be the first to bring up. Jesus, he felt like he was back in grammar school, wondering if he should ask a girl if she liked him or wait to see if she went first. _This has got to be the weirdest fucking day of my entire life._ It wasn't the mortality that was making him vulnerable. It was the fact that she was right.

She was his equal in a way that he had never seen in any other person, male or female, vampire or mortal. It was scary and gratifying at the same time. He felt almost shocked as the truth of it settled in. She was it, this was his counterpart. She was the culmination of all of the vague and fragmentary feelings or wantings he had ever had regarding a woman. Not just a kill, not just a pretty girl on the Boardwalk that he could cajole and charm into coming back to the cave, ultimately to her death (again, his stomach twisted in a way he had never experienced while recalling his former actions. _Did being mortal just make you soft, or did it just give you a real conscience?_). Not just any other that, but a mate.

Cate sat back down, slightly closer to him but still maintaining a respectable distance. "And….like I said…because right now there's no one left who even knows my name. I don't have anyone."

_I don't have anyone_

The connection was growing stronger. David could almost feel it buzzing in his ears. It wasn't the touch of a blood-bond, as he had become used to feeling. It was something human. It spoke less in words, less in thoughts – it was feeling, emotion. It was the last piece of the puzzle that clicked into place, and the last remnant of his anger fell away. Cate eyes him sideways, nervous in the silence.

David's voice could barely be heard above the soft sound of the water.

"You can have me."


	8. Blood Runs Thicker

**Authors (hey, that's me!) Notes:**

**Thanks SO much for the reviews guys – it really makes me want to keep writing. Yes, Tobias is dead (sniff sniff…yeah I liked him myself, all big-brothery) BUT it will all work out in the end – there is method in my madness, you shall see. **

**And a note about the previous chapter, as well as this one – David's origins circa 100-150 years past as a rogue soldier/mercenary type was Mneme's idea (gotta give her the kudos) but I tweaked it a tad and made him a young Confederate soldier (sucker for Southern accents me). Also a "Napoleon" is a model of Civil War artillery gun, used primarily by the Union side, which had a range of over a mile and fired 10-12 pound balls. Yep, I am a history nerd, so sue me.**

**Ok and for the Latin translation ---- scroll down to the bottom, it would spoils stuff if I wrote it right here! (yes, I am also a Latin nerd). Its been a few years but I believe my declensions etc are correct.**

**September 17****th****, 1862, 11:50 pm**

The air was so thick with smoke, gunpowder, and the smell of death that he was having to breath double-time to keep himself from passing out. His back, covered by a once crisp and clean uniform that was now unrecognizeable from dirt and blood, was pressed up against the side of a ragged tree, its bark torn from the trunk in many place from bullets. Almost all of the artillery fire has subsided hours earlier, but there were still a few units who were sending shots into the woods – for fun or to actually try and kill someone, he didn't know. It was times like these that he seriously questioned if he had been mad for signing up. He didn't care about politics, it had just been a chance to let out a brewing cauldron of aggression….but if it killed _you_, it wasn't fun anymore.

David was still miles away from his own territory, having (stupidly, he seethed at himself) decided to pursue a pair of Union soldiers with whom he had been exchanging intermittent sniper shots. Now it was dark, the perimeter of the wood was swarming with patrols, and every time he thought he could take a breath and move, the whoosing roar of a cannonball being released and pounding into the ground, sending clods of earth flying in all directions, came to his ears. Some of the enemy were now putting anything they could find in their artillery cannons – all sorts of odds and ends, metal scrap, rifle parts….you never knew what could come flying at you if you moved two steps in the wrong direction.

_To blazes with it,_ he thought, _I need to move now. If I don't, they're going to be combing the woods for me tomorrow, and I won't have a prayer._

With a huff of air, he got to his feet, staying low. The rifle was empty, but he took it anyway. His eyes were adjusted to the darkness, but he still managed to trip over various unidentified objects and each time let loose a stream of whispered curses, which if his mother could hear, she would box him soundly about the head. He pricked up his ears as he heard the dim sounds of shouting voices. No, they were too far away to be of any immediate danger yet. WHOOSH ! He flattened himself against the ground in an instinctive movement, and felt the vibrations of something striking the earth with amazing force. He couldn't tell exactly how close it was in the darkness, but it was close enough that he got up and began to move faster. It sounded like a Napoleon. Those things were too accurate for his liking.

Being reduced to a mangled heap of arms, legs, and innards by 12-pound artillery cannonball was not on his list of best ways to die.

He got up and began moving at a trot, away from the voices. Whether it was the right direction or not, he was unsure, but he was going to find out. "Gah!" his foot hit something large and soft and he tumbled to the earth headfirst. Spitting out a particularly foul-tasting mouthful of dirt and shaking himself off, he looked back, squinting in the dark.

At first, all he saw was the whites of the man's eyes. They were moving. Then there was the glint of blood in the moonlight, and eerie tarry slick that covered his body. But then the stench came to his nostrils and he almost fell backwards. The smell of meat left out in the sun. Just beginning to rot. A man. Alive. Alive with his innards hanging out like a butchered pig. He had obviously been gutted by a small, lucky artillery shot. The man made a soft gurgle and David backed off, shaking. It didn't matter whether this was gray or blue. The only thought going through David's mind right now was a kind of fixation of horror. He couldn't look away.

The man was young. Short hair. It was too dark to see the color of his eyes. His throat was moving, and his eyes stood out in his head, bulging against the thin, wan skin beneath. And the smell….Oh God. David took another step back. He didn't even notice the sound of the artillery shot, and it didn't set in for him to move until the man on the ground slowly blinked. That break from eye contact, that reprieve from staring into those horribly wide, white eyes, shook David from his fixation.

The next second, something crashed into him from the front, and the realized his body was twisted in mid air and thrown to the ground. The utter shock of it rendered him motionless.

There was a tickling in his chest. Some kind of scratching, pulsing feeling. It was getting worse.

He tried to move and the sensation exploded into a shot of pain that was so intense he screamed, not caring if he gave away his position by doing so. His hands flapped about his body, trying to find out what was wrong. They landed on something hot and hard. And sharp. It cut his hands just by touching it. _Hell_, _I'm wounded. What is it? _ David lifted his head, and tried to see. Terror rose in his throat. It was a chunk of scrap metal at least five inches across, who knew how deep. But the metal itself was not what had caught his attention. It was the blood coming from his chest in thick spurts. A wet gurgling sound echoed the frantic thumping of his heart as he literally watched his life leak out of his body. He had seen enough carnage to know that bleeding like this was not the kind that could be stopped. At least not in time. _No. I'm not wounded. I'm dead._

His mind howled in rage at his body _No I'm not ready to die stop it isn't fair it isn't fair there was no warning none at all this isn't happening get up!_

But his body paid no heed. The pain faded to a throb and David felt himself growing dizzy. This is the end. He was waiting to die. He had maybe a few seconds, ten at most. _What can you think of in ten seconds? I have ten seconds to live. And with each passing second I am becoming less and less aware. My thoughts are not words anymore. No emotion. Some kind of electric twitching in my brain, that is all the will be left, until the clock reaches zero._ He let out a furious, desperate noise, halfway in between a sob and a roar. He could no longer see, his eyes were filled with stars. The last thing David heard in that life was the sound of a familiar, cultured female voice. "You see, I always find you."

"Sorscha?" Spastic memories flashed inside his head, all out of order. The witch, the "dark woman" or at least that was what the well-to-do Southern ladies had called her. To dismay of his parents for besmirching their good family name by associating with such a woman, especially an older woman, he had been been seeing her until he left for the army. What was she doing here? He was hallucinating, he must be. There wasn't much time left. The stars twinkled out and his lungs heaved a final breath. _And this is it._ He dazedly felt a last touch warmth against his face and copper in his mouth, and the coldness of death set into his body. Everything was over.

**PRESENT TIME**

The sun had set a deep red, and the night weather was following suit. The sky rumbled slightly like a disgruntled animal, clouds building and fading, as if unable to decide when to storm. Thick, warm air circling through the deserted Boardwalk, hugging the cracked wooden walkways. Paul had joined David sitting out on the rocks. Both had been silent for quite a while, but as the sun finally disappeared behind the horizon, Paul spoke "We're not going to make it, are we?"

There was a time for courage, even bravery to the point of stupidity….but this time, David couldn't find any words to convince himself that any of this could end well. He could even see the severity of the situation reflected in Paul's eyes. Paul, the one who never took anything seriously, who considered himself even more immortal than the rest of them.

"Well…If we don't…it's been good riding with you, man. You were a good leader." Paul proffered a hand to David.

David took it and shook it firmly. "Same to you." He smiled briefly, a flicker of the old snarkiness in his face. "Even though you were my least favorite."

"Hey man, just because you were all jealous of all my awesomeness..."

"You're right, that's it. Caught me."

"Yeah, my awesomeness overfloweth."

"It sure does."

"Like the Nile River"

"Ok, now you're taking it a bit far."

"Giving all people live, love, and loud music."

"Paul, the joke is dead."

"And my awesomeness doth not hear the protesting of David the chump."

"All right, for that, I'll kill you myself before your Friar-Tuck sire even has a chance to."

"Ok, Ok. I guess my awesomeness doesn't cover that one."

"Probably not." David couldn't help laughing to himself a little. The sound felt strange coming from his mouth, considering everything that had happened. "But we'll see what it can do."

**ONE HOUR LATER**

"Mother_fuckers_!" screamed Paul as a bullet zinged by his head. He tried to flatten himself even farther behind a large rock outcropping at the back of the cave. "They have _guns_!"

"You just figured that out?" Cate's voice cried from somewhere across the room.

Tristan motioned to his two flanking pack members to move to the left, coming around to Cate's side. "Joseph. Go with Talus for the huntress. "

Joseph hesitated, giving Tristan a dark look. "But…I thought you said Talus and I - "

"No."

"But we were the ones with Paul when -"

"I said no, Joseph" Tristan's voice was patient, but took on a slightly annoyed edge at being questioned. He didn't want those two possibly killing Paul before he had gotten a chance to come before Tristan. He turned to the three others on his side, who had fired the opening rounds that sent Paul, Cate, and David diving for cover. "Lux, take your brothers and bring David. Do not kill him." He eyed Sorscha, who was standing just out of sight at the cave entrance. She nodded and her lips curved in a slight smile. It was like a lioness twitching her lips before springing. Lux, a solemn-looking, youngish vampire nodded and motioned to his brothers, even younger but all three muscled like bears. He fired off a round as he caught a glimpse of David moving behind another outcropping. The bullet whistled and crashed into the rock of the cave with a shower of sparks. David had moved so he could see Cate. Paul was out of his line of vision, but if they were going to mount any sort of successful defense, they needed to be able to communicate. _We need to get one of those guns_ he mouthed to her, pointing.

"You'll be interested to know that the bullets are not silver. How unfortunate for you, even if you should managed to get a hold of one." Tristan's voice echoed in the cave between shots.

Cate rolled her eyes and David clapped a hand to his forehead. Of course. Sorscha, whom he was sure was running this whole operation, wouldn't have been that stupid.

"David, I know you're there. Why are you protecting one who came to hunt you? Why are you risking your life for a single packmate, one who never even truly respected your authority?"

"Because I think you're a pathetic excuse for a bloodsucking alley cat and I'm going to kill you myself." David spat out loudly. He wasn't about to be wheeled and dealed.

In the silence that followed, Cate struck. Joseph and Talus had turned their attention towards Tristan, waiting for their leader to react to such an insult. Both throwing knives screamed through the air, and each found its mark.

The domino reaction began. That was the moment of confusion David had been waiting for. He sprung, snarling, at the three in front of him. Frozen for a full five seconds due to the unbelievable nature of David' charge, the larger of the two younger brothers was the first to be taken down. The smaller panicked and fired. One bullet missed David completely, the second only grazed the side of his head. Before he had even realized they had missed, David's knife had buried itself deep into his heart.

Paul yelped ecstatically and ran to help. But Tristan had been ready for even such an unusual rally by his targets. He motioned to Sorscha quickly and took aim at Paul with his own gun. In his excitement, Paul had completely forgotten about the possibility of Tristan being armed. His robe had obscured any hint of weaponry. The bullet took Paul through the calf and he went down full force into the ground like a roped calf. Tristan swooped down and before his child could move, pinned him to the ground, his foot almost crushing Paul's windpipe.

Sorscha leisurely walked down the stairs. Her eyes were relaxed, almost languid. She had no need of violence, and she knew it. She raised a hand.

David's arm was stopped in mid-strike.

Lux immediately knocked the knife from his hand and wrestled him into a headlock. David felt the gun pressed against the side of his head and tried to turn. But he couldn't. He couldn't move at all. Sorscha smiled, knowing the extent of her power. She moved her index finger slightly forward and David was thrown backwards a few feet against the rock wall. Sorscha continued walking, her hand at her side but fingers still outstretched. "David, my dear, don't be foolish."

Cate looked first at Paul, and then at David, and back at the unguarded tunnel where Star and Laddie were waiting, surely terrified by the unexpected gunshots. She had no idea what to do. She couldn't take any of them out, not Tristan or Sorscha or Lux, without someone being killed in the process. Her hands shook with a combination of rage and frustration. She plucked the knives from the smoking bodies of Joseph and Talus, and stepped out from behind her shelter. "Let them go. It's me you want, isn't it? They have nothing to do with this."

Tristan clicked his teeth, listening to Paul's gasping breaths as he dug his foot in harder. "On the contrary, they have very much to do with this. Lux - Sorscha will hold David. Take this, _thing_, out from under my feet. I shall deal with it shortly."

Lux obeyed, leaving his empty Glock on the ground. David struggled to move, but still couldn't. He remained locked in position, his back against the cave wall. He turned a wild eye to Sorscha, who watched him calmly. "Why are you doing this?" he hissed. "You knew I left. I had every blessing to leave, why the hell are you here?"

Sorscha put a finger mildly to her lips and stepped up to her child, touching the other hand to the bullet scratch on the side of his head, which was beginning to ooze blood. "You shall see in time."

"Let me go" his voice remain quiet, but the ferocious urgency was obvious.

Sorscha's eyes flashed briefly with a beautiful, sadistic gleam. "Hush. You have no need of her."

Tristan walked towards Cate, but she backed away from him in a circular fashion, moving clockwise around the cave until she was within a few yards of David. Her eyes never left the gun in the older vampire's hand. "Do you know why I killed your brother?"

Cate did not reply. She kept her knives at ready, watching warily as Tristan slowly but steadily began to raise the gun

"Your father killed one of my pack. My most precious child, the one who was to succeed me. Such a thing does not go without being rectified. It is pure justice, nothing else. Surrender yourself to it."

Cate still said nothing. Her eyes flickered almost imperceptibly over to David. He had been right, Sorscha was more powerful than any of them. But she was still holding back. Cate knew she could hold more than one person defenseless, so they could all be killed at once. Why wasn't she using her full abilities? Tristan caught her look. He abruptly turned his body, keeping his eyes locked on hers. Now the gun was pointed straight at David.

"Women are very predictable. I should have known this one would be able to charm you. Surrender yourself, or you can watch him die. I was kind in not drawing out your brother's death, but you can be assured that bullet wounds can take a long time to kill a person, when they are shot in non-lethal, but very painful places. Especially when one is very accurate." To punctuate his remark, Tristan fired a single shot. David only half-stifled his howl of pain as the bullet ripped past the deep skin on the tender inner part of his right knee, severing tendons as it went. Cate's eyes lowered and glazed over. This was it. It was checkmate, and they had lost. She bent down to put down her knives.

Paul struggled against Lux, but, being unable to put weight on his foot, wasn't going anywhere. "Cate, don't! Cate!" Lux dealt him a mighty blow over the head, and Paul fell to the ground senseless.

"Cate, don't." David whispered.

Cate put down her knives, slowly, and brought her hands up with open palms.

"Sorscha." David growled at his sire again, this time almost pleadingly as the pain in his leg flared. "_Me exime, obtesto._"

"_Quamobrem? Quanti est tibi_?" Her Southern accent glided over the Latin like velvet.

"_Est mulier mei, coniux mei_."

"_Adamis_?"

"_Sic, nimis_."

Sorscha's eyes took on a softened look. "_Quanto? Praeter creatorem_?"

David lowered his eyes and replied in a painful, quiet voice. "_Ardeo_"

Sorscha's head tilted to one side and she smiled, gently caressing his cheek and then raising his head up gently. "Never would I have thought it possible." Her laugh was low and musical. The hushed conversation went unnoticed by Tristan, who had brought the gun back level with Cate's head. Sorscha turned, placing a well-manicured hand on the barrel of the gun. "Wait. I have a proposition to make."

Tristan bared his yellowed fangs slightly as he lowered the gun. If she kept overruling him like this, he would have to change his plans. Sorscha continued. "Huntress, you may leave with your life on one condition."

Tristan hissed under his breath "I did not approve this."

Sorscha spoke to him silently _Wait and see._ "The condition is that what is ours returns to us."

Cate's eyes narrowed. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Paul, you will return under Tristan's command. And David to mine." Her fangs had descended even more, glinting like white opal. "Or else we will kill both of them, right here in front of you, and then you yourself shall die."

"Stop." Sorscha turned as David spoke, and relaxed her hand. David flexed his shoulders, able to move again only by her permission, but kept his head lowered, miserable. So this had been her plan all along. She was just using Tristan and his minions - they were nothing but pawns. He should have known better. He cleared his throat and continued in a resigned voice, keeping his head low and submissive. "Give me your word, first. Then I don't care what you do."

"David, what is she talking about?" But deep in her gut, Cate knew what she had meant.

Sorscha stepped forward to David and held his head up with one hand. His eyes were still lowered, conquered. "You have it. You, my little tiger. Sacrificing your freedom for another's life? Has your brush with mortality changed you so much in so little time?"

"Just get it over with." David replied quietly, gritting his teeth.

Sorscha needed no further signal. She took a final step forward so that they were but inches apart and placed one hand behind David's head. He didn't fight, remaining as docile as a lamb to slaughter, even as she applied gentle pressure to the nape of his neck, forcing his head forward and into a kiss so passionate that Cate felt a fire of jealousy explode in her stomach. She watched as Sorscha moved her lips down David's neck, the vampiress's fangs now fully emerged and pressing teasingly against his jugular vein. He opened his eyes and caught Cate's gaze, trying to keep contact with her as Sorscha's teeth began to break the skin. Their dark blue color had lightened to a dull grey in the dim light, and the only emotion Cate could pick out of them was regret. At that moment, there was something in his face that made her realize painfully how young he was. Now it was back to being young forever.

Sorscha had played enough. Her fangs slid into David' neck like scalpel blades, and his eyes snapped shut, cutting off Cate's gaze. Within seconds, the muscles in his good leg began to fail him, but Sorscha's hand, incredibly strong, came around the small of his back to keep him upright. It wasn't painful. It was like the first time. All the heaviness being drained out of his body so he felt light. Dizzy. He knew that there was always something about a vampire killing embrace that rendered the victim unable to fight, and he had forgotten the feeling of it – it was a feeling of pure ecstasy, washing over his dying body. He didn't feel like he was dying. It felt like heaven.

Cate watched in horrified fascination. It happened so quickly. Sorscha was not one to draw out a kill. She was too experienced for that. The color drained so far from David's face that it almost blended into his hair, the deadly pallor of the last sparks of life going out. Tristan saw where this was going. Without a sound, he changed position, edging around until he was behind Cate, just in the beginning of her blind spot.

Not pausing, Sorscha left David's neck and she clicked her fangs together, biting the tip of her own tongue expertly. Cate was too terrified to be jealous as Sorscha leaned in a kissed David's nearly lifeless lips again. As soon as her blood hit his throat, it was like someone had hit him with a pair of defibrillators. His body started, then trembled , and he leaned into her embrace, turning his head slightly to deepen the kiss. His eyes opened again, but this time Cate saw with horror that she didn't even recognize them. They were a burning golden color, with pinpoint pupils. They completely ignored her. Sorscha abruptly but firmly grasped David by the hair at the back of his head and pulled him away. He fell to the ground, writhing and choking as the new death-life within him took hold. His face remained human, but his eyes were still feral and yellow. Cate tried to repeat to herself. _He looks the same. He's still David. He's the same_. At that moment she felt Tristan's heavy arm around her neck in a choke hold, and her arms held behind her by the wrists. And she realized what was going to happen.

Sorscha watched as David' body relaxed slowly, his eyes fading back to blue. His wounded knee had not changed, as it had been inflicted before, but his accelerated healing powers stopped the blood and helped him bear weight. He stood shakily, like a colt getting up for the first time. Sorscha steadied him. A hand came under his chin, turning his face to the side. "Much better." she cooed. "You missed it, didn't you? " All of his senses were rushing back and David couldn't help but admit to himself she was right. Strength returned to his limbs in a way he had almost forgotten it could. Her hand left him as he stood upright fully, shifting his neck to one side with a sharp crack of joints.

If it had been any other vampire, it would have taken hours for him to recover from such a dramatic blood loss. But Sorscha was….well, she was different.

It was beautiful. Breathtakingly, incredibly fucking beautiful. He could feel everything, see everything, just like before – it almost felt like he was going to explode from the inside with so many things coming to his eyes and ears at once, so much ice and fire flowing in his veins…it was almost too much. But his gaze landed on Cate's frightened eyes and his emotions faltered. It didn't seem quite as beautiful anymore. He was her enemy now. He was one of the things she had dedicated her life to killing. Underneath the surge of power in his body, there was a twinge of anguish. He felt Sorscha's hand on the nape of his neck again, indicating he should walk forward. Towards Cate.

"Only one more thing, little tiger."

David winced inwardly and tried to look Cate in the face. He couldn't. He couldn't look at those liquid brown eyes, the same God-damn beautiful eyes that that had looked at him that morning with an emotion he couldn't describe when he had offered himself to her, made him so weak in the knees that he couldn't stand for minutes on end. He knew what was about the happen.

"You must have a first." Sorscha's nails dug into his neck and she pushed him against Cate with strength he knew he couldn't match. Tristan held Cate steady as she cried out. "David! Don't"

David tried with all of his might to keep his fangs up. His lips were on her neck and he could actually smell the blood through her skin. The rush and almost unbearable thirst came to him again, pounding in his temples. He could feel his face change, his fangs slip downwards and redoubled his efforts. "Sorscha, you can't…you can't make me do this. I told you what she was to me."

Sorscha nipped him on the shoulder and he gasped, his fangs automatically coming all of the way out. "You will do this, child. You must realize that such affections, especially towards humans, are dangerous."

It was unbearable. His head was about to explode from the pulsing desire to feed, and his breath was coming in short gasps as he tried unsuccessfully to keep his mouth closed. It was as if there were demons clawing at the inside of his skull. His fangs pressed against Cate's neck and she cried out again, but the words were muffled in Tristan's hand, which clapped roughly over her mouth _No. No. Cate. You can't do this to Cate. Not her. Oh God, anyone but her._ Sorscha nipped him again, harder, like she was egging on a reluctant puppy. David cried out himself in pain and despair as he was unable to stop his fangs from pressing even harder against Cate's neck. Any moment now, any slight touch of more pressure, and he would be inside her skin, and then he knew there was nothing in the living world that could drag him back, let alone his conscience. Sorscha reached over and swiped at Cate's neck with one sharp fingernail, leaving a small, open wound, and bit David sharply on the sensitive spot between his shoulder and neck. _Now, child_. The scent of blood was too much. Cate let out a shrill, agonized noise behind Tristan's hand as she felt David's fangs shove into her neck violently.

_I'm sorry_

It had only been days since David had last fed, but if felt like years. The warmth of it caressed his insides. For a moment he forgot that it was Cate, and forced his fangs even deeper, trying to savour every pulse of blood that entered his mouth

Sorscha looked on, an almost approving, loving look in her eyes, noting that Tristan needed less and less force to hold Cate motionless.

David began to feel the heat of satiety in his own blood. The transformation was complete, the intensity of if washed over him. He sensed the heart of his killbeginning to fail as the pulses became weaker. Beat. Beat. Beat. His mind came crawling back to him as the lust in his body was slowly quelled. He gradually recognized where he was, he recognized the presence of his sire, and that the skin of his face was becoming softer, his fangs inching upwards in microscopic increments, his body responding to the conclusion of a kill….and he finally recognized the neck in which his fangs were buried. He smelled that awful, familiar smell. Steel and lavender. He withdrew with a scream and Tristan allowed Cate's body to collapse to the ground. David was on his knees in a flash, his features returned to normal but twisted in agony, trying to gather up Cate's limp body into his arms.

Her face looked incredibly small and pale. He thought he could almost see the bones behind her face, holding up her skin, it was so translucent. He silently begged her eyes to flicker, her mouth to move, any sign she was still alive, but as he pressed his ear to her chest, and could not hear a sound, he realized the full extent of what he had done.

Paul had slowly come round. He shook his head, colored specks still dancing in front of his vision. Tristan now focused on him, keeping the gun at ready. "And you. Despite your betrayal…I hold forgiveness as a high virtue. I do not give it easily, however I would be willing to have you as my child again. Swear loyalty to me, and you shall be forgiven of your flight." The older vampire's fangs were still down. "If you refuse, I have only one choice."

Lux hauled Paul up by the shirt collar.

Tristan watched Paul's eyes dart from David to Sorscha and back to him. It was as if he was looking for some sort of advice, some sort of signal.

"YOU!"

Tristan's breath was crushed from his lungs as something cannoned into him from behind, the single screamed word reverberating in his ears. David was on him like a wildcat, clawing, snarling, trying to get at his neck in a fit of unadultered rage. His blows were erratic and uncontrolled, and Tristan managed to get one of his arms in his grasp. Paul felt a heat behind him, and Lux's arm loosened. He darted away, wincing on his bad leg, and turned to see a sight he had never encountered before. Lux was literally burning alive before his eyes. The vampire squealed and convulsed, flames consuming flesh, blood, and skin in clouds of black, four-smelling smoke. Sorscha's hand was outstretched towards him, and her gray eyes glowed ferociously. _She_ was doing it. Tristan saw the fire out of the corner of his eye and roared, redoubling his efforts against David's onslaught. Paul tore out of the room and down the tunnel, not knowing or caring why Sorscha had done such a thing. He had to get Star and Laddie out of here. Now.

David wrenched his arm away from Tristan's grasp. The two vampires rolled around on the floor like a pair of demons, fangs bared and blows flying. Tristan extricated himself and stood, growling, arms spread as if to egg David on. In a last ditch effort David went low. _Weak heels be damned_. His knee buckled under the angle and strain as he came in but he made a colossal effort with his other leg, shoving his back and shoulders against Tristan's chest. The older vampire lost his footing and fell, and within a half second felt both of his arms pinned to the ground at his sides and knees on his chest. For a moment they both stopped, chests heaving. Tristan sneered. "What can you do to me? You are nothing. A toy, a pet of that traitoress. I can smell the weakness of your blood." A tiny, warm sensation tickled his hand, and Tristan glanced to his sides. A long, dripping wound that he had not seen before slashed its way up David's arm.

It was fresh.

He did not remember inflicting such a wound.

David took his knees of Tristan's chest and wrenched his arms around so they were now above his head. Tristan struggled, but a new weight settled on his chest. He looked upward and opened his mouth to speak. But the sudden pain in the side of his neck choked out the words. He struggled, but David was holding his arms firm. He tried to see what was on top of him what was…biting him? He felt himself flowing out and jerked desperately against David's grip. But it was too late. His struggles were already becoming too weak to be substantial. As his brain began to scream from lack of oxygen, lack of blood, and the knowledge of impending death, he smelled a strange scent. It was blood, but not human. No, not the coppery smell of human blood. This was a mixture of the intoxicating flora of Sorscha, the peppery, almost fiery scent that he recognized as David's, and….was it…lavender?

Cate raised her head, watching the last signs of life in Tristan's eyes flicker out. His jaw dropped slightly as he wheezed his last, and a black cloud began to rise from it like a smokestack. Her eyes gleamed an intense amber color.

"That…is for my brother."

**Now for the Latin.**

"_Sorscha." David growled at his sire again, this time almost pleadingly. "Me exime, obtesto." I beg you, let me go_

"_Quamobrem? Quanti est tibi?" For what reason? How much is she worth to you? Her Southern accent glided over the Latin like velvet._

"_Est mulier mei, coniux mei." She is my woman, my mate_

"_Adamis?" Do you love her?_

"_Sic, nimis." Yes, an incredible amount_

_Sorscha's eyes took on a softened look. "Quanto? Praeter meum, creatorem tuum?" How much? More than me, your sire?_

_David lowered his eyes and replied in a painful, quiet voice. "Ardeo" I burn_


	9. Hunter and Hunted

"And YOU!" Cate threw herself at David and began landing blows anywhere she could, his face, his stomach, his shoulders, anything with her reach. He didn't even attempt to defend himself, taking her blows as if he had been expecting them. "You turned me into a…a …one of them! Take it back! Take it back you - " and she then lapsed into a string of curses that even David himself had to wince at.

"I can't take it back. You've killed."

"But –"

"It doesn't have to be human."

Cate screamed in frustration "You bastard!" She gave up her attack and sank to the ground, hot tears flowing from her eyes. "You should have let me die."

"I couldn't do that." David knelt beside her, his voice quiet as if he didn't want anyone else to here. He was too ashamed to meet her eyes. He didn't usually care about his selfish behavior – he was a selfish person by nature – but this time it had spiraled beyond his control.

She jerked away from his touch and gave him a tremendous slap across the face with the palm of her hand that echoed through the cave "It wasn't your call! I don't belong to you, you can't decide whether I live or die."

"Cate…" his face stung and he couldn't think of any more words to say. No girl had ever, ever slapped him in his entire life. His first reaction was anger; he wanted to hit her back. But the thought quickly disappeared from his mind as reality set back in. He had saved her life, that much was true. But in the process he had turned her into the one thing she hated most. And not only was she a vampire now, but he had been turned as well. He wondered if she would kill him now, and miserably realized he wouldn't care.

_You've just ruined her life because you're a self-seeking bastard. Brilliant. Great job. _

Sorscha was standing by, not seeming fazed at all. She was looking at Cate with an air of curiosity. "So much anger? Even thought you've become so much more than just a insubstantial human _occisor mortui_ now? Think of it. You've become a perfect killing machine. Carrying on your family's work forever now…your brother would have been proud."

Cate's eyes burned and she bared her fangs, turned her furious attack towards Sorscha, but David held her back.

"Why did you do all this? Turn David, kill Lux? And let me kill Tristan? Is this your idea of FUN, you heartless bitch? "

Sorscha turned a disdainful eye to the smoking pile of ashes that was once Tristan, and sighed. "Tristan was an encroacher, untrustworthy. He began to try to supercede my authority in the southwest packs."

Cate ceased struggling but her voice was still full of venom "So you decide to _play a game _in order to get him? Get my brother killed in order to get him?"

"My "game" as you call it, was not intended as such. I could not destroy him outright because of the…political mess…it would cause, if you will. I also knew he was coming to Santa Carla with the intent of finding you and your brother, as well as Paul and David. I could not allow the latter."

Her smile towards David was slow and sensual, and despite her anger at her sire, Cate felt a wave of jealousy. She pointed her knife at Sorscha threateningly, knowing full well she was shaking too hard for an accurate throw, but getting her point across nonetheless. "Watch it, you bloodsucking corpse of Scarlett O'Hara. You sure as hell aren't going to touch him again without my permission."

David looked at Cate incredulously. He wasn't sure if he should be offended or flattered.

Sorscha laughed. "My, you have a firebrand here, child I didn't expect you to change her so, but I suppose I had forgotten you never live by the rules, do you? I concede that my previous opinion will have to change, no? She looks worth keeping. Beautiful, like a coral snake. Beautiful and deadly, both. " Her voice returned to its serious tone. "I did not intend for that to happen. I underestimated Tristan during the first engagement. I know of your family, and, despite our diverging paths, to put it lightly….I respect it. Had I been there, I would have not allowed such a thing to happen, dear."

Cate was about to open her mouth with a caustic reply, but David turned his head towards her and she felt his breath on her neck. He didn't have to speak, she knew what he was saying. _Let it go. It doesn't matter if she is lying, just let it go_.Reluctantly, she dipped her head slightly, touching her chin to his head. _If you say so_. His nose pressed gently against her neck once in a modest version of a nuzzle. _Thank you._

Sorscha had already turned to leave. Her graceful form moved up the steps like she was gliding on nothing at all. She looked back one last time, her aristocratic lips curled into a knowing smile. "Huntress, I must admit I envy you. It is hard enough to gain my little tiger's trust, let alone tame his spirit. "

A she disappeared through the entranceway, David collapsed against Cate's shoulder. She turned to him and sat back on her heels, putting her hands to his face. He was shuddering violently, with pain or relief, she didn't know. He pressed his forehead against hers, breathing in sharp, uneven gasps that sounded unlike anything she had ever heard coming out of his mouth. A hard lump rose in her own throat. Cate pressed her forehead harder against David's and ran her shaking hands up and down the sides of his face. He responded, putting his hands behind her head and tangling his fingers in her hair as if he was hanging on for dear life. "It's all right" she said quietly, but her own voice was trembling as her previous rage subsided. She finally recognized the sounds he was making, and stroked her hand across his nose and cheek. He was crying. Brokenly, as if he had never cried before and didn't know how.

Again, Cate felt the unspoken messages inside her head. His fingers tightened in her hair

_I thought you were gone. It's my fault.. _

and she kept her hands at the sides of his face, placing her thumbs as his temples and moving them in slow, small circles

_I forgive you._

She kissed his lower lip softly, with none of her usual teasing …nothing but the knowledge deep in her gut that

_I'm yours. _

everything had changed, for better or worse she did not know,

_I know._

but she was no longer alone.

"I'm not going to kill anyone." She spoke out loud finally, her voice sounding very small in the large room.

"I know." He coughed, trying to hide a snuffle.

"Is there…any way around it? "

"Blood doesn't have to be human. It can be vampire, animal…but then it's not as…"

"Satisfying?" Cate felt her stomach churn involuntarily.

"Sustaining." David took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to pull himself together. "Sorscha was right. Listen to me, it isn't all that bad –"

"Isn't all that bad? Are you kidding me?"

"Please, listen. Please. You can keep on hunting. In fact, you're probably a better hunter now, your abilities and instincts are ten times what they were. Trust me, I know. You don't have to kill humans, there are ways around it. Kill vampires, hunt animals…it's hard but it's possible."

"Holy balls…" the moment was broken by Paul's characteristically vulgar and amazed exclamation. He had arrived at the main room with Star and Laddie, who were surveying the scene with equal astonishment.

Star ran forward and fell on her knees, throwing her arms around David like a younger sister seeing her brother for the first time in years. Cate allowed it, wrapped up in her own thoughts and trying to justify what had just happened. It felt surreal. She could see and hear things she had never noticed before, the wind, the ocean, the dusty rock of the cave, distant voices of the Boardwalk night life. _Take it in slowly._ She heard David voice and looked up, but realized he hadn't spoken out loud. It wasn't just messages sent through signals, she actually heard his voice in her head. _God that's creepy. He can read my mind_

_Only a little. You can read mine too._

_How?_

_It's part of the bond. _

Star had pulled away from David, her small mouth open in astonishment. "You're…you feel so cold…"

David's eyes dropped. "Later. I'll tell you everything later. It's over now. Right now…right now we all just need to sleep."

**A SHORT TIME LATER**

For the remainder of the night, all of them collapsed in the back rooms with feelings of utter relief. Paul stayed with Star and Laddie. The only method of showering in the cave was a small freshwater stream that ran underground along the cliff and emptied a small ways off from the cave. By the time Cate had her turn to wash off the blood and dirt from the night, she found David already fast asleep on his back, head turned to one side. She stopped for a minute and watched him. In sleep, there was nothing to hide with starkness of his youth. There were no cold, strong blue eyes, no curl of a smirk at his lips, no aura of arrogance and strength to intimidate others. The stubble on his face looked like nothing more than an attempt to add years to his appearance. Cate guessed him to be no more than twenty or so in human years. It was comforting in a way. Seeing that the vulnerability, the human-ness, was still there, made her feel slightly better. Leaving behind the last remnants of her anger and indignance, she climbed soundlessly under the covers and lay alongside him, sliding her arm across his chest. She knew why he had done what he did. In a way she wished he hadn't, but in another she was grateful almost to the point of tears to be alive. _He did it because he didn't want me to die. Am I that important to him? That he couldn't bear letting me go?_ She almost didn't believe it, it felt so strange. The closest thing to such devotion she had ever felt before was from her brother. Her heart cringed slightly at the memory.

"You are." She thought he had been asleep, but his rough-sounding voice breathed quietly in her ear. She took a deep breath, still getting used to the barrage of stimuli coming to her mind and senses. She sensed his body shift and arm tighten around her before she actually felt it. "You can be everything your family could have wanted you to be now. It isn't a death sentence." he said, with a small chuckle. "Sorry. Bad pun."

"I know. I just need time."

She felt his lips on her neck and instinctively nipped him, her body tensing. "What are you doing?"

He sounded slightly embarrassed. "I was…just going to kiss you. If you want."

"Sorry. My neck is just…just leave it alone for the time being. Please."

He responded by putting a hand behind her head and gently leading her forward, kissing her deeply and sending vibrations through their bond. _I'm sorry. I want you_. She could smell him, a heavy, fiery, almost bitter scent. _I wanted you from the first second I saw you. This will all become good in time. _She pushed against his body, the familiar feeling of desire twisting in her chest.

This time, there was none of the reckless abandon, none of the chaotic sexuality or misguided judgement of the first time. This time it was slow, almost gentle, burning not as a vicious, unfeeling wildfire but _smoldering_, slowly and sensuously, like white-hot embers. Every flash of pleasure pulsed fervently back and forth between their bond, amplifying sensation to a point that edged on rapture. It felt like forever….a trance, a dream, physical, psychological, emotional, every single part of their bodies and minds together…almost forever, but soon she heard his breath growing sharper and more forceful, and felt his body sieze and tense up on top of her, his mouth leaving hers to gasp. _Cate_. She heard her name and could not balance on the edge any longer. Heat rushed through her body, seemed to come from every single cell, and the reverberations of his release through the bond was almost too much to bear. He shuddered again himself as he felt her, and his voice came again, silently, to her head.

_I'm in love with you._

Not only the words, but the vague underpinnings of his thoughts that she could sense…that he never thought he would ever say such a thing, and was almost fearful of her reaction….caused Cate to reflexively hold him even closer and bury her head under his neck. She didn't even have to reply in words, vocally or silently. David felt her, and it was as if a weight had been lifted. He closed his eyes, drunk on the breathtaking sensation of her body against his, listening to her breathing grow softer and smoother as they both fell asleep.

**LATER**

It took several days to finally clean up the wreckage of the cave. Paul's wound was only through muscle, and he was able to walk fully a few days after the incident, with Star keeping him pumped full of pain medication.

Paul liked pain medication.

Too much.

He had gotten on almost everyone's last nerve with long, emphatic dissertations of just why Jim Morrison should have run for president, why it was irrelevant whether the models in Victoria's Secret were touched up, and exactly how he liked his hamburger made, down to the exact amount of ketchup versus mustard.

David' knee healed over, but he walked with an almost unnoticeable, but definitely permanent, limp. He was a bit sensitive and grumbly about it, giving a nasty eye to anyone who asked him how it felt, but was secretly rather flattered by their concern. Star had managed to dig up the boys' motorcycles at the junkyard where Michael and the Frog brothers had hauled them. David's was the only one still suitable for riding (she suspected Michael couldn't bring himself to trash a Triumph Bonnie), so he had spent most of his nights out riding. Sometimes with Cate, sometimes alone. When out together, they had managed to find a loose end of Tristan's pack still hanging around Santa Carla and cornered him in an alleyway as he was about to sink his teeth into an unconscious, young, touristy-looking girl. Cate dispatched him quickly and drank her fill, but David could tell her satisfaction at both the kill and the nourishment was still blurred by a bit of doubt. She held on to him especially tightly on the way home that night.

It was evening of the fourth day after the final confrontation when Paul, finally coming off the wooziness of the percocet, ran into Cate. She was dressed to the nines in the same clothes she had been wearing when she had first come to the cave, tight black pants, washed-out white tank that showed off the distinctive muscles in her long arms, and, of course, the black leather boots. Her dark hair was washed and tucked neatly into a braid at the back of her head, a few shortish tendrils hanging around her ears and forehead. She was packing away her knives and the few articles of clothing she owned into a bag. "Hey, you look like you're goin out, there, chickadee…are you leaving?"

Cate glanced over and smiled slightly. "Yeah. I see your hormones haven't stopped raging yet."

"Hells no. Have you told David?"

"Not yet. But I will"

"All right. Cool I guess….but are you sure you're up to heading out on your own? Going down the only road that you've ever known? As a drifter you were born – "

"Ok, I get the picture, Mr. Whitesnake." Cate chuckled. "It won't be the first time. Tobey – Tobias – wouldn't have wanted me sulking around and not doing my job. If I spend any longer crying, he's going to come down and start pulling all sorts of ghostly shit on me. What I need to do right now is get back to what I do, what my family does, and what people need me to do."

"Well, okay, I guess. But it wasn't bad having you around, man, er, Cate." Paul wasn't the best at eloquent goodbyes.

Cate stood up and smiled holding out her hand to take his and shake it firmly. "Not bad having you around either. Say bye to your girlfriend for me."

"My? Oh no she isn't er, my girlfriend, she's er…."

"Oh, sorry." Cate realized her faux pas. "Ok, I revise – good luck with the girl."

"Right on, man." Paul smiled sheepishly, and headed out toward the entrance. He ran into David , who pulled him aside. "Hey." David said quietly. "I need to talk to you for a minute. Outside."

"Sure thing."

They went outside and Paul sat down on a rock while David remained standing, seemingly a bit uncomfortable. He had his hands shoved into the pockets of his trenchcoat and stepped from side to side slowly. "Paul, I haven't said anything till now but…are you all right with how you are now?"

"How I am?"

"Mortal. Because if you're not...I can…well…you know what I mean."

"Not quite, man."

"Okay. I'm not good at pussy-footing around this stuff. If you want to go back, I can change you back."

"Oh." Paul seemed grateful, but the reluctance in his face could be seen, even in the dim moonlight. "Yeah I gotcha. Well, thanks for the offer, man, but I think I'm gonna pass."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I mean, I was thinking of just staying here. With Star and Laddie, in Santa Carla….I mean, someone's gotta run the old video store now that the Maxinator is smoked."

"Star and the kid would be lucky to have you."

"I hope so man."

"She likes you. I can tell. And Laddie does too. The little bastard always hated me." David laughed despite himself.

"Yeah, you're not a great father figure."

"That, I'm not. Oh, and please tell me you're not going to grow your hair again. The bats in the cave are doing just fine without that specific roosting place."

"No, I'm going to cut it all off and save kids with cancer. Psssshh whaddya think man, of course it's gonna grow back, rock and roll."

David sighed and rubbed the side of his face, which he had finally gotten around to making at attempt at shaving. "All right. Just don't smother anyone with it."

"Scout's honor, no smothering. Cate's leaving, y'know. She wanted to see you."

David started. "She's leaving?"

"I think so, man. She can't deal with being all cooped up like this."

David walked down the stairs and saw Cate bent over her things. Reaching into his pocket, he tossed his bike keys onto her bag. Cate looked up, pretending to be surprised, but she had sensed him coming. "You're giving me your bike?"

"Well, sort of."

"How can you 'sort of' give someone a motorcycle?"

"The bike and me come as a unit. Two sleek and sexy machines for the price of one."

"Package deal, huh? Are you saying you want to tag along?"

"Eh. I have nothing better to do." He feigned nonchalance, half-closing his eyes like a cat in the sun. After things had calmed down and the slight awkwardness had gone, they had returned to exchanging banter most of the time, David pushing her to see how well she could match his intellect. Unfortunately, she was usually quicker than he thought. But, he conceded, that was damn sexy.

"Seems an awfully quick turnaround for you. Going from being the most bad-ass vampire on the block, to offering to hunt your own kind."

"Well, to be honest, the vast majority of vampires piss me off anyway. And its not exactly like either one of us can slip into normal society." He broke to glance briefly to where Paul had been, making sure they were alone. He reserved many display of vulnerability for Cate alone. "And I don't want you to leave. You know how I feel. I may be gimp, and an occasional asshole…but I'm still pretty quick on my feet, good with knives…good in bed….."

"Is that a requirement of being a hunter?"

"It should be." He jerked away as Cate reached up and ruffled his bleached hair up into more spikes, pretending to be offended. "Whoa, whoa, not the hair."

"Sorry, Billy Idol. You're ready to go right back to being a killer? Because, no sugar-coating, babe, that's what I am, that's what I do….I don't want to just take off without you either but….it's a duty. A calling, whatever….words don't describe it."

"I know. And like I said, I can slaughter good or evil in an equally efficient fashion, I love you, and…I don't have anything else to do for the next couple decades…"

"Allright. Deal. I guess I might need you along anyway…get me used to this whole undead thing." She spat on her hand and held it out "Pact made. Aedair and…?"

David spat on his own hand and shook her anyway. "No clue."

"Don't you have a last name?"

No one had ever asked him that question. "I don't really remember it. It's been a long time."

"How long?"

He smiled ruefully "Somewhere around a hundred and fifty years…"

"Think."

David dug around in the back of his mind. All of it seemed so long ago. He searched for a familiar word, or name, anything that rang a bell. There was nothing. He gave his shoulders a slight shrug, somewhat self-conscious. "No dice."

Cate cocked her head to one side "Well….if you can't remember, there's always room for another Aedair. Heck, I guess I'm the only one right now."

"Oo…do I get a ring too?"

"You'll have some ringing in your ears after I smack you for a comment like that. "

"Ouch. There goes my pride. You know you're making that up to me as soon as the sun comes up."

Cate laughed and kissed him. "Get your stuff, you. I'd like to be off in an hour. I need to check back in at the New Mexico station."

"How are they going to react to you? Not to mention me?"

"They trust me, they trust my family's name…even now I don't think that would change. Loyalty runs deep in our profession. But anyway, no matter what they think, what my family would think, or even what Tobias," her voice wavered slightly, "would think…what's done is done. No use speculating on everyone else's opinion. And besides…I need you around right now. This is still an incredibly weird fucking feeling and I don't know what to do with it yet."

"It's my job to teach you. I'm your sire."

"Wow. That doesn't sound kinky."

David pointed to the right. "Mind." He then pointed left. "Out of gutter."

"Sorry. I'll listen. I suppose you're the expert." Her voice dropped slightly. "And…I'm still not sure whether to hate you or not for this. You know I love you, but things are going to be on thin ice for a while. Do you understand me?"

"I understand. Just give me a chance to show you. You don't have to be a raging murderer unless you want to. If you have enough balls and the will, you can control it."

"I hope you're right. Or else you'll be the first one I kill." She came up to him and slid a hand underneath his trenchcoat, grabbing the seat of his pants half playfully and half seriously. "Despite that cute smile, baby blues and tight ass, I _will_ kill you."

"Heh…I'm right." He gave his trademark lopsided smirk. "You'll see."

A short while later, Star watched David and Cate tying their bags up the motorcycle. Both seemed in high spirits, especially David. Star had never seen him drop the seriousness and act so endearingly immature around anyone. He and Cate were exchanging plenty of playful bumps, pushes and nips. It was a little disturbing in a way…like watching two hellhound pups frolic together seconds before going out on a ruthless hunt….but it still lifted her heart. Despite all of the things that had gone wrong with regard to her and David, she couldn't help but care for him. It seemed like he was finally happy with someone. A year ago, she couldn't have even put the two concepts of "David" and "happiness" together. Even now, she could tell he was still the old David in many respects. Still ruthless, still arrogant…but at least around Cate he seemed to have found a way to let that all slip away, even if just for a few moments.

David gave Cate a quick nuzzle on the neck and came over to Star, wrapping her up in a brotherly hug. "Be good, Star."

"You know I will." She hugged him back.

"And be good to Paul too."

Star smiled and blushed despite herself, lowering her long-lashed eyes.

David knelt in front of Laddie, who was staring at him seriously. "Hey kid. Don't give those two too much trouble, okay?"

Laddie stood stoically for a moment, and then slowly stepped forward and put his small arms around David's neck. Completely surprised, David couldn't help but feel secretly delighted. After giving Star a final squeeze on the shoulder, David returned to the bike and swung his leg over, Cate sliding in behind him. The Triumph growled to life, as if urging them on with its guttural rumblings to get on the road. It was time to leave.

**QUITE FAR AWAY….**

The decrepit plantation house creaked in the cooling Georgia air, betraying the age of its woodwork. A single figure lounged on the porch on an elegant carved bench, but the average passerby could easily write it off as just a shadow, just a reflection of the Long tendrils of Spanish moss hanging from the house's windows and roof. The mouth of the figure turned upwards in a small, curling smile as distantly, its ears sensed the growl of a motorcycle and the anticipation of a new future bearing down on another, one very dear to her, with an almost frightening but wonderful urgency. A throaty, musical voice melted into the evening breeze.

"Good hunting, little tiger and your mate. Good hunting."

**THE END!!**

**I have a couple more ideas that I may be throwin out soon…I have a Flatliners fic I've been thinking out for a while (yes….I want to have Kiefer Sutherland's babies….so sue me….) **

**Or I may continue this story…of course, bringing back old characters like Michael, the Frogs, etc – cause no one wants a story with ALL new characters – ruins the point of a fic, aye? Anyway, THANKS so much for all the wonderful comments and for reading!**


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